C. sativa is a valuable oilseed; it has a wide nutritional and technical use. The purpose of this study is a comprehensive study of C. sativa collection accessions in various ecological and geographical conditions to determine the environmental stability parameters. C. sativa All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR) collection accessions served as a material source for the study. The study was conducted in four different ecological and geographical regions of the Russian Federation. In the factor structure of the environmental parameters variability two factors are identified covering 94.8% of the variability. The first factor is associated with the precipitation sum (PS) and the temperatures sum (TS) for the vegetation period (68.7%), the second factor is associated with the average daily temperature (TM) for the same period (26.1%). Analysis of the system of correlations between the parameters of stability and plasticity and the value of regression coefficients for meteorological indicators showed that for all the studied features, indicator b closely correlates with regression coefficients for the temperatures sum (TS) and average daily temperature (TM) for the vegetation period. Indicator Sd—with coefficients for the precipitation sum (PS) and average daily precipitation (PM). The result of the study made it possible to identify collection accessions of C. sativa with a high stable adaptability to the contrasting climatic conditions of the studied regions.

A b s t r a c tIncreasing global temperature recently leads to climatic changes towards more drought conditions over large areas, so drought resistant plants should be wider cultivated. Chickpea is a drought resistant crop commercially cultivated in 2013 at 800 000 ha in some region of the Russian Federation with periodic droughts, except the Tambov region, though its geographic and climatic conditions could be appropriate for chickpea growing. For the first time in the Tambov region we investigated the formation of breeding traits that determine seed productivity in 629 chickpea accessions of different origin, including 44 countries, from the VIR (All-Russian Research Institute of Plant Industry, St. Petersburg) World Collection which were selected due to prior wide geographic testing in other Russian regions and abroad. Using statistical methods, i.e. factor, dispersion analysis and clustering, we defined breeding and noticeable traits, the influence of sowing norm, and the countries which were the most perspective as originators of chickpea. It is shown that the number of branches of the 2 nd order, the number of pods per plant, plant height, the length of growing period mainly contributed into determining productivity of chickpea plants in the environmental conditions of the Tambov region. The weight of 1000 seeds had a positive relationship with the period from flowering to ripening. A significant association between the weight of seeds per plot and the number of plants was observed with the maximum rate found at 70-80 plants per plot. The variability of accessions in plant dray weight was the greatest and reached the value of Cv = 98.3 %. A total of 73 % of the variability of the investigated traits were influenced by three factors. The first one causing 38 % of variability comprised of a block of correlated traits, namely the number of branches of the 1 st and 2 nd order, the number of pods per plant and plant dry weight, which were associated with the number of seeds per plant. The second one of a 25 % influence included the periods from germination to flowering and from flowering to ripening, the height of the lower bean attachment and the plant height, and the third one with a 10 % effect on variability was the weight of 1000 seeds. In 330 studied forms the bean cracking rate was 10 % that met the standards of Volgogradskii 10 variety, in 202 accessions it exceeded 10 %, and 96 accessions were resistant to bean cracking being valuable for breeding. A total of 147 accessions were not affected by fusarium wilt, and another 120 accessions were very weakly attacked and damaged. By clustering we identified three groups of countries where the forms with higher seed weight per plant and weight of 1000 seeds as the most economically valuable traits were originated from. Accessions from the United States were characterized by larger weight of 1000 seeds and weight of seeds per plant, while in accessions from the former Soviet Union, Bulgaria and Afghanistan the weight of 1000 seeds and the weight of seeds per p...

Background. The vegetation in Astrakhan Province has for a long time attracted the interest of natural scientists. However, due to inaccessibility of a number of habitats and ‘landscape ϐluidity’ in the Volga-Akhtuba ϐloodplain and the Volga estuary, not all of its areas have been explored comprehensively enough. The local vast resources of useful plants of arid steppes and deserts, including crop wild relatives (CWR), have until now remained unused. Studying and mobilizing valuable plant samples, forms and species from natural communities would help to preserve the bioresources of desertiϐied steppes and deserts, and enhance their utilization in arid areas.Methods. The collecting mission’s route passed through Chernoyarsky, Yenotaevsky, Narimanovsky, Krasnoyarsky, Kharabalinsky, Akhtubinsky, Privolzhsky, Kamyzyaksky, Limansky and Ikryaninsky districts of Astrakhan Province. With the itinerary-based method of surveying, the explorations were carried out from August 12 through August 30, 2017. The length of the route was 2,467 km. Coordinates of the collecting sites and altitudes above sea level were identiϐied with a Garmin etrex 20x navigation device.Results. The diversity of CWR and landraces was explored in various natural ecosystems of the Volga river basin. Sixty-eight phytocenoses were described, and 160 seed samples of 39 plant species (25 genera) were collected, representing old landraces and wild relatives of fodder, fruit, cereal, vegetable and ϐiber crops. Many of the collected plant forms and populations with valuable biological traits deserve to be included in introduction trials and breeding programs, especially those that may serve as sources of heat, drought and salt tolerance.