Biomorphological features of virginal plants of the genus Euonymus L.

The genus Euonymus L. belonging to the family Celastraceae includes more than 200 species; about 11 species of them grow in the climatic conditions of central Russia. Representatives of this genus are used as highly ornamental plants in city landscape gardening; many species are frost-resistant, unpretentious, smoke- and gas-resistant and perfectly take root not only in the gardens of central Russia, but also in the climatic conditions of the North. The goal of the present research is to study biomorphological features of virginal plants of the genus Euonymus in the conditions of Irkutsk (Russia). The objects of this research were E. verrucosa, E. europaea, E. maackii. The repetition of experiments of each type is 14-fold. Each type of experiments was repeated 14 times.The results of the research showed that in the conditions of sharp continental climate of Irkutsk, the shoots of virginal individuals of the genus Euonymus begin to grow within the period of the second decade of may through the first decade of June. E. maackii showed the longest growth period of shoots during the growing season (7 weeks). The average annual growth increment of shoots ranges from 11.26 cm to 16.11 cm. The variability of the increment is 1.50 - 2.67%. The performed observations made it possible to divide the species of shorebirds into 2 groups, where the slow-growing group includes E. verrucosa, while the fast-growing includes E. maackii and E. europaea. The research results indicate that all the studied species of the genus Euonymus can be used in the landscaping of Irkutsk, and E. maackii are the most promising of them.