Lockdown botany 2020: some noteworthy records of alien plants in Kyiv City and Kyiv Region

The escape of alien species from botanical gardens: a new example from Ukraine

The spontaneous appearance of the annual plant, Veronica cardiocarpa Walp. (Plantaginaceae), from Central and Minor Asia was recorded in the O.V. Fomin Botanical Garden of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 1983 as a result of unintentional introduction. It was the first documented occurrence outside of its natural range. V. cardiocarpa has been widespread within the Botanical Garden since 2007, and the first location outside the Botanical Garden was discovered in 2010. Later, the presence of V. cardiocarpa was noted in Chernihiv, as well as new locations in Kyiv. This species has become a new invasive plant of the flora of Ukraine, because it occupies new areas and shows high seed productivity. Additionally, V. cardiocarpa has high seed germination under certain conditions that were established during our experiment, consisting of four variants and a control. The conditions of the second variant—cold stratification with low positive temperatures for two months and germination of seeds at + 18–20 °C—were the most favourable—49 ± 4.36% germinated seeds began to appear on the third day after completion of stratification. Moreover, some indirect facts show that V. cardiocarpais is already deeply integrated in local urban ecosystems. Therefore, the main stages of the adaptation and spreading of V. cardiocarpa have been studied and described in Ukraine in this research. Information about a new location of this species in the Russian Federation significantly changed the understanding of V. cardiocarpa distribution in Eastern Europe. Finally, in this article, we discuss the important matter of dealing with the V. cardiocarpa invasion, and some approaches to prevent similar cases of the new alien species penetration through collections of botanical gardens and arboreta.

New floristic finds in the Forest-Steppe part of Zhytomyr Region

Results of the conducted botanical surveys in the Forest-Steppe part of Zhytomyr Region are provided. Nine alien taxa (mainly xenophytes) new for the flora of the Right Bank Forest-Steppe have been identified: Allium altissimum, Amaranthus deflexus, Aphanes arvensis, Artemisia umbrosa, Crataegus sanguinea, Epilobium pseudorubescens, Erigeron strigosus, Polygonum calcatum, and Silene coronaria. Localities of these species are described and botanical-geographical comments are provided for most of taxa. There are also 64 taxa newly reported for the Forest-Steppe part of Zhytomyr Region, of which 31 are native plants, 32 – alien plants, and 1 species of unidentified origin. Twelve taxa are rare and protected at different levels. Invasive plants in need of monitoring are identified among newly reported species. According to the new data, flora of the Forest-Steppe part of Zhytomyr Region includes more than 1320 taxa of vascular plants. An important result was the discovery at the border of Zhytomyr Polissya and the Right Bank Forest-Steppe of localities of five expanding species of the genus Rubus with predominantly Central European ranges: R. bertramii, R. gracilis, R. hirtus, R. montanus, and R. plicatus. Expansion of these species of blackberries in the eastern direction within the territory of Northern Ukraine is associated with natural migration and is probably caused by the gradual climate warming.