Influence of climate warming on the state of woody plants of the family Oleaceae Hoff. et Link. in the collections of the Botanical Garden of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Abstract

The created collections of woody plants made it possible to evaluate the life cycle of forsythia Forsythia ovata Nakai, privet Ligustrum vulgare L., and high ash Fraxinus excelsior L. of the Oleaceae Hoff family. et Link. and their response to changing climatic conditions. Tall ash, common privet froze every year to the level of snow cover. The flower buds of the forsythia froze, and it did not bloom. Due to the increase in the average annual temperature from 1.7 °C to 2.69 °C since 1990, forsythia and privet began to bloom and bear fruit. Introductory populations were created and the most frost-resistant and abundantly flowering individuals were selected. But as a result of abnormal weather conditions and climate cyclicality, all young and old privet plants died in 1998. Common privet plants began to bloom profusely only in 2021 (sowing in 2018). High ash plants fully recovered and reached a height of 10-12 m.

Features of acclimatization of Ligustrum L. in the Middle Urals

“…In the Urals, for the first time in the city of Sverdlovsk, on a collection site, common privet was planted at the age of 10 years (Moscow reproduction) in 1936 at a height of 0.4 m, the growth in the first year was 24 cm, freezing of young shoots and fruiting was noted [10]. Ligustrum vulgare L. has been growing in the Botanical Garden of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1960, the shoots froze up to 90 cm, almost to the level of the snow cover, but with an increase in the average annual temperature since 1990, the privet began to bloom and bear fruit [11]. But as a result of climate cyclicity and abnormal weather conditions, all privet plants died in 1998.…”