DIVERSITY AND PHYTOSANITARY STATE OF PLANTATIONS OF THE GENUS SALIX L. IN THE CITY OF KRYVYI RIH

Abstract

We studied the representative species of the genus Salix L., used in the land-scaping of the city of Kryvyi Rih, as well as their life status and occurrence rate. The study of the real state of green spaces was carried out by the method of route surveys. The degree of spread of a species or a cultivar was determined by the occurrence rate of the species. The viability of trees was characterized according to a 9-point scale of viability of tree species in protective plantations. In the green spaces of the city, the genus Salix is represented by 5 species (S. acutifolia Willd., S. alba L., S. babylonica L., S. exelsa S.G. Gmel., S. fragilis L.) and 2 decorative cultivars (S. alba ʹVitellina pendulaʹ Rehd., S. matsudana Koidz. ʹTortuosaʹ). In the course of research, we ascertained that wil-lows in the cityʹs parks are used unevenly, so they can be divided into three categories according to the degree of distribution: I – the most common taxa; II – moderately common ones; ІІІ – rare ones. The cultivar S. alba ʹVitellina pendulaʹ Rehd. belongs to the first category; it grows in almost half of the studied parks and squares of the city. The second category includes S. alba L., S. babylonica L., S. matsudana Koidz. ʹTortuosaʹ and S. fragilis. The third category consists of rare species: S. acuti-folia Willd. and S. excelsa S.G. Gmel. According to the predominance of types of plantations, the following series can be built: single specimens → group plantations → plantations → arrays. In the Kryvyi Rih Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the genus Salix is represented by 10 species (S. caprea L., S. viminalis L., S. schwerinii E.L.Wolf, S. argyracea E.L.Wolf, S. ledebouriana Trautv., S. purpurea L., S. acutifolia Willd., S. fragilis L., S. excelsa S.G.Gmel., S. pentandra L.) and 6 cultivars (S. alba L. ʹVitellina pendulaʹ, S. alba L. ʹVitellina py-ramidalisʹ, S. caprea L. ʹKilmarnokʹ, S. matsudana ʹTortuosaʹ, S. × rubra and S. × forbiane). From the specified list, the most promising cultivars for use may be S. caprea ʹKilmarnokʹ willows, S. × rubra, which are practically not used in landscaping. For the first time, information on the distribu-tion of willows in the cultivated coenoses of the Right Bank Steppe of the Dnieper region on the ex-ample of a large industrial city was studied and summarized as well as vital state and occurrence rate of these willows were determined. The obtained data make it possible to improve planning re-garding the use of promising species and cultivars of the genus Salix in order to enrich and increase the value of green spaces in parks and squares.