Spontaneous flora of O.V. Fomin Botanical Garden of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine

Abstract

For the first time we compiled a full checklist of the spontaneous flora of O.V. Fomin Botanical Garden of Taras Shevchenko National University, Kyiv. Native (281) and alien (243) taxa of the flora were analyzed. Among the alien species there are 115 xenophytes (including 71 archaeophytes and 44 neophytes), 128 ergasiophygophytes (including 3 archaeophytes and 125 neophytes). Four species of alien plants were listed for the first time for the flora of Ukraine: Arabis procurrens, Lactuca sibirica, Polanisia dodecandra subsp. trachysperma and Talinum paniculatum. It was found that the alien fraction of the flora is dominated by a stable component (54.7%), and among the ergasiophygophytes, most taxa (86.3%) are unstable components. Among the native plants, those species with a polyregional distribution predominate. This ratio is typical for transformed flora that have lost their natural structure. Among the alien species, the majority are sub-Mediterranean (43.6%), American (23.9%) and Asian (18.1%) in origin. In the biomorphological structure of the species of native plants perennial grasses predominate (65.3%), among xenophytes - annual grasses are dominant (74.8%), and among ergasiophygophytes perennial grasses predominate (43.8%). But despite the large number of alien plants in the botanical garden, their invasion can be mostly contained. The most widespread invasive plant is Parthenocissus vitacea, in addition, a number of potentially invasive plants need monitoring, in particular Parietaria officinalis, Phytolacca acinosa, Thladiantha dubia and some others. In addition, there is a list of introductions which have high naturalization rates and over time could replenish the composition of the spontaneous flora.

Keywords

• flora structure
• alien plants
• escaped plants
• naturalization
• neophytes