REDISCOVERING OF HISTORIC IVY CULTIVAR ‘RUGOSA’ IN NIKITSKY BOTANICAL GARDEN

Abstract

The old English ivy cultivar ‘Rugosa’ is found as a relic of cultivation in Nikitsky Botanical Garden. Authors revealed that ‘Rugosa’ together with a few ivy cultivars introduced by early heads of the Garden has survived since the 19^th century where the layout of the park had not been changed. At the same time ‘Rugosa’ has disappeared from key collections in UK and probably from mainland European collections as well. The clone from Nikitsky Garden fits the unique set of characters of ‘Rugosa’ having heterophylly, mostly deltoid leaves, large palmate leaves with shield-shaped central lobes, gold, dust-like coloration of the palmate leaves, wrinkled surface in three-lobed leaves, at least in some cases. The structure of trichomes shows ‘Rugosa’ belongs to Hedera helix , not to H. hibernica. The rediscovery of the lost historic English cultivar ‘Rugosa’ is an important event in the history of horticulture and for those that are concerned about the preservation of garden plant diversity.