DOI 10.36461/NP.2024.70.2.002
UDC 633.88 (470.40)

FEATURES OF THE PHENOLOGICAL STAGES OF ECHINACEA PURPUREA DEVELOPMENT IN THE FOREST-STEPPE OF THE VOLGA REGION
V.A. Guschina, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, Professor; E.O. Nikolskaya, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences, Deputy, N.V. Kochemazova, Postgraduate
¹Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "Penza State Agrarian University", Penza, Russia, tel. (8412) 628-367, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
²Branch office of FSI Roslesozashchita – Forest Protection Centre of Penza Oblast, Penza, Russia

The growing interest in medicinal plant raw materials in recent times is related to their use in conventional and folk medicine. Numerous studies have been carried out to investigate the biological and immunological effects of Echinacea purpurea on the human and animal body. Recently, however, it has also been used in urban landscaping. Phenological observations are an indispensable part of the study of plants. They help to reveal the ecological and physiological restructuring of the crop, which is very important in practice. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to investigate the seasonal development of Echinacea and its adaptability in the conditions of the forest-steppe of the Middle Volga region for the landscape design.
When growing Echinacea in 2018...2020 on meadow chernozem soil, it was found that the duration of the vegetation period was 145, 155 and 164 days, corresponding to the years of the study. The weather and climatic conditions in the Penza region provide the transition of the phenological rhythms of Echinacea purpurea of the fourth year of life. The most optimal conditions for its development were in 2020, when the hydrothermal coefficient for the vegetation period was 1.17, compared to 0.50 and 0.68 in previous years of research. The development of plants requires the sum of active temperatures from 1214.9 to 1271.0 °С. The change in the rhythm of growth and development processes is also influenced by plant nutrition. However, the acceleration and duration of flowering, which lasted 44...51 days, was influenced to a greater extent by the treatment of plants with Zircon in the leaf rosette stage.
Seed ripening takes place at the sum of active temperatures from 2577.7 to 2681.7 °С and the dry inflorescences retain their ornamental value in winter.
Keywords: Echinacea purpurea (L.), phenological stages, seasonal rhythms of development, vegetation period, landscaping, growth regulator Zircon.

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