Ecological and biological features of common tansy (Tanacetum vulgare L.) in the ecotopes of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic

Abstract

The bulk of the preparations of medicinal plant raw materials of common tansy (Tanacetum vulgare L.) are wild plants. Flores Tanaceti industrial collections are produced in the central regions of the European part of Russia. In the North Caucasus, T. vulgare grows scattered, so the data on the bioresource potential of the species require clarification. The aim of the study was to study the ecological and biological features of T. vulgare in the ecotopes of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR). The study of the area, morphological and phytochemical variability of T. vulgare was carried out on the territory of the KBR in 2018-2021 at the start of flowering plants.The study of the range, ontogenesis and ecological and biological features of T. vulgare was carried out on the territory of the KBR in 2018-2021 at the start of flowering plants. According to the results of the study, the range of T. vulgare covers three floristic subregions: Chegemo-Chereko-Sukansky, Leskeno-Lashkutinsky and Jurassic depressions. The highest occurrence and abundance of plants are typical for forest, forest-steppe, meadow, floodplainecotopes of the foothill zone of the KBR. In the studied phytocenoses, T. vulgare is a companion species with an average abundance of 0,3-2,5%. The zone of ecological optimum for the species is meadow-steppe and drymeadow moisture, fairly rich soils, moderate moisture variability, and weak pasture digression. Under conditions of low load, T. vulgare cenopopulations form normal full-membered, unimodal spectra with a maximum on mature generative specimens. Under stress conditions, the spectra become incomplete, discontinuous, unimodal, right-handed, with a maximum on old-aged generative plants. Among the studied morphological and economically valuable traits of T. vulgare, high variability was noted for the number of anthologies in the inflorescence, medium variability for the number of generative shoots and flower yield, low and very low variability for the height of the shoot, the content of phenolic substances, and the diameter of the anthorax. In mid-mountain cenopopulations compared with foothill a significant increase in the content of the sum of flavonoids and phenolcarboxylic acids in flowers, shoot height, a decrease in the number of baskets in the inflorescence, the number of generative shoots, and the yield of raw materials were found. The nature of the correlation between the accumulation of phenolic compounds in flowers and the studied morphological traits can be used to select T. vulgare ecotypes and include them in the breeding process.