ANNUAL ORNAMENTAL PLANTS SEEDS QUALITY IN CONTINENTAL CLIMATE CONDITIONS

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to assess the quality of seeds of annual ornamental plants produced in the continental climate of the Ob region forest-steppe. In modern landscape design, when creating flower beds from summer beds, not only species are used that are propagated not only by seedlings, but also directly by spring sowing in the ground, due to the high cost of seedlings. In this regard, species of annual ornamental plants that are guaranteed to produce annual abundant seed harvests in specific ecological and geographical conditions are of great interest. As a result of many years of introduction experiments, 57 species from 19 families were identified, in which, regardless of the hydrothermal conditions of the growing seasons, stable annual fruiting was observed. It has been shown that the germination of local reproduction seeds in most species used for ground sowing when creating flower arrangements corresponds to the highest classes 1 and 2 according to GOST 12260-81. The exceptions were Impatiens glandulifera Royle, Convolvulus tricolor L., Godetia grandiflora Lindl., Clarkia pulchella Pursh, Collinsia grandiflora Dougl. ex Lindl., Linum grandiflorum Desf., Eschscholzia californica Cham., in which laboratory seed germination indicators in some years were in the range of 1–3 or 2–3 classes. The morphometric characteristics of seeds for a digital seed library were studied at the Center for Collective Use of the Central Seed Garden of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences using a Carl Zeiss Stereo Discovery V12 stereo¬microscope with a high-resolution digital camera AxioCam MRc-5 (AxioVision 4.8 software). Replenishment of the digital seed library used in practical classes at the Novosibirsk State Agrarian University expands the volume of material mastered by students, including statistical processing of morphometric parameters of seeds of annual ornamental plants.