Representatives of Rosaceae Juss. in the various structure-functional types of decorative plantings of Kryvyi Rih city (Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine)
Objective – to define the diversity of Rosaceae representatives in parks and squares of Kryvyi Rih city and to evaluate their vitality, longevity and perspectives of further apply for landscaping of the region. Material and methods. The object of our study is plantings of representatives of the family Rosaceae in parks and squares of city of Kryvyi Rih. We used such investigation methods: visual, morphometric and statistical ones. Results. In the parks and squares of Kryvyi Rih, family Rosaceae is the most divers – it is represented by 43 species, 5 hybrids and 5 cultivars, which together belong to 20 genera. The most represented genera are Spiraea (7 taxa), Sorbus (5), Cotoneaster (4), Malus (4), Padus (4), and Prunus (4), while the rest of genera comprises from 1 to 3 taxa. The geographic analysis suggests significant prevalence of species from East-Asian (36.5 %) and Circumboreal (34.6 %) regions. According to distribution of life forms, there is some predominance of shrubs; they represent 56 % of total number of Rosaceae. With regard to height classes, trees of third class of size (34.6 %) and undersized shrubs (25 %) prevail. As for age structure, 20–40-year-old shrubs and trees (about 70 %) predominate. The highest level of vital state is noted for 60 % of plants of this family, average level – for 30 %, and low level – for 10 %. 72 % of evaluated plants were classified as highly decorative and 28 % as decorative. In future, enrichment of plantings of the region may be carried out by using the collection stock of arboreal plants of Kryvyi Rih Botanical Garden the NAS of Ukraine, comprising about 350 species, varieties and cultivars of 31 genera of the family Rosaceae. Conclusions. The most of investigated Rosaceae plants, in conditions of large industrial city located in the Steppe zone of Ukraine, were characterized by high viability and decorativeness. Hence, these plants deserve to be more widely used for greening of cities and towns of Right-Bank of the Steppe zone of Ukraine.