The Main Signs of and Reasons for the Decline in Vital State of Trees and Shrubs in the Arboretum of the Peter the Great Botanical Garden

The assessment of the current state of woody plants in the park of the Peter the Great Botanical Garden of the Komarov Botanical Institute RAS (BIN RAS) was based on a detailed examination of 363 trees and shrubs belonging to 226 species and forms from 77 genera, which is about 18% of the taxonomic composition of the collection. The winter hardiness of plants, estimated through frost damage, still determines the possibility of their cultivation in St. Petersburg. Moreover, if in the past the most important was to study winter hardiness and the response of introduced plants to cold and unfavorable winters, now comprehensive, multifaceted studies of the levels of adaptability, stability and longevity of plants are required. There is a wider spread of diseases caused by oomycetes and other pathogens, which lead to the dieback of the shoot system, root rot, and plant rotting out. The assessment considered the ongoing and increasing climate warming. There is a large group of plants that have not exhibited negative response to changes in heat supply. There is a third group of species that have improved their state due to the decrease and ceasing of freezing under warmer and longer growing season and milder wintering conditions.

trees and shrubs, plant-damaging factors, vital state of plants, changes of climate