On Juniperus excelsa in the natural populations of the Crimea, 28 species of fungi from 24 genera, 19 families, 15 orders, 6 classes, 2 divisions were identified. The article presents an original methodology for the collection and multivariate analysis of symbiotrophic fungi on woody plants, where fungi are distributed in ecological niches, which are organs and parts of a plant. For each type of fungus, 6 main parameters are recorded that determine its location in the ecological niche: edatop, plant age, its condition, size of the substrate, as well as the intensity and prevalence of the fungus along the tree. Each finding of a fungus is displayed on a schematic drawing of the morphological structure of a tree, which is the basis for building a mycological model. For Juniperus excelsa, the features of the formation and development of 28 fungal species in 12 ecological niches and 6 edatopes were determined; fungi are differentiated according to the intensity of their development, distribution according to the substrate, confinement to the age of the plant; the dependence of the development of fungi on the state of the tree was established. Distribution of fungi by ecological niches and ecological niches was carried out; the levels of specialization of each type of fungus were established. A new technique for collecting and processing mycological material makes it possible to obtain more than 100 new data on the ecology and biology of symbiotrophic fungi.

The article analyzes the activities of ethno-medical collections in botanical institutions in Russia and the world. It is shown that an important step in the creation of ethno-medical expositions is the deciphering of the folk names of medicinal plants and diseases. To establish the exact Latin name of a plant, it is necessary to use data on its geographical distribution, habitat characteristics, morphological description, abundance of plants (since very rare plants are usually not used in medicine), phenology and medicinal properties. It is important to understand that problems due to incorrect identification of a plant species and information about it in ethnomedical expositions can lead not only to not obtaining the proper therapeutic effect, but also to severe poisoning. The ways of solving these problems with the use of information labels for plants and stands at the exposition are proposed. The challenges are the rapid and almost irretrievable loss of traditional medicine data and its replacement with pseudo-folk medicine.

The study of the effect of course (10 procedures) inhalations (1 mg/m3 of air, procedure duration 20 minutes) of the essential oil (EO) of lavender cultivar "Sineva" (selection of the Federal State Funded Institution of Science "NBG-NSC") was carried out in persons staying in a sanatorium-resort institution. It has been established that the effect of exposure depends on the initial (upon admission to the institution) psychoemotional state of patients and its dynamics in the process of recreation. With initially low and medium estimates of psycho-emotional state indicators and its positive dynamics during treatment, lavender EO slows down the dynamics and stabilizes the state at a slightly lower level than in the control. With an initially high level of assessments and the absence of their dynamics in the control, inhalation of lavender angustifolia EO vapors does not affect the psycho-emotional state.

The results of the studies of high and low air humidity effect on the frost resistance in some evergreen Oleaceae species (Olea europaea L., O. europaea subsp. сuspidata Wall. and G. Don, Ligustrum lucidum L., Osmanthus x fortunei Carriere и O. fragrans Lour.) on the Southern Coast of the Crimea are presented. It has been found out that the air temperature of -6°С, the probability of which on the Southern Coast of the Crimea is 69%, in combination with low air humidity, has a more intense effect on the photosynthetic apparatus in evergreen species of the Oleaceae family than in combination with high air humidity. High sensitivity to the modeling of winter dry conditions was typical for the genotypes of the Olea genus, and on the contrary, Osmanthus x fortune was susceptible to a combination of negative temperature and high air humidity. The characteristics of the photosynthetic apparatus state in the evergreen Oleaceae species under advection of cold air masses and a decrease in air temperature to-5.1°C in December 2021 are reported. It has been revealed that the implementation of frost resistance capacity in the studied Oleaceae species depends more on the weather conditions preceding the frost period, wind speed and air humidity at the time of the onset of freezing, but not on the duration of negative temperatures pressure.

The aim of the work is to analyze the species composition, structure, sozological and resource significance of the vascular flora in the Greek juniper light forests of the Crimean Mountains in order to clarify their botanical and geographical features and improve measures of conservation. The work is based on the materials of many years of field research, which were carried out by the traditional route-reconnaissance method, as well as on the generalization of information from literary and Internet sources. The systematic structure was analyzed in accordance with the classical approaches of the comparative floristic analysis. The areological and ecological-biomorphological characteristics of the species are given according to the "Biological Flora of the Crimea" by V.N. Golubev. The nomenclature of the taxa corresponds to IPNI and POWO. The sozological and resource status of species is given in accordance with the relevant nature conservation documents. It has been established that the flora of Greek juniper light forests of the Crimean Mountains includes at least 524 species and subspecies of vascular plants from 270 genera of 62 families, which is over 20% of the Crimean flora. The "core" of the studied coenoflora was identified, which includes 289 species from 173 genera of 49 families. In the systematic spectrum, the main role is played by the families Fabaceae, Poaceae, and Asteraceae; in the geographical spectrum, species with a range of the Paleomediterranean type, primarily the Mediterranean-West Asian group, predominate. In the spectrum of biomorphs, the number of monocarpics significantly exceeds the number of polycarpic herbs species, which is typical of arid and subarid light forests. Among the ecomorphs, xeromesophytes dominate in terms of water regime. There are 71 species under conservation, as well as 50 resource species belonging to the group of the crop wild relatives. The conducted studies have expanded the understanding of the quantitative composition of the flora of the Greek juniper light forests of the Crimea by 1.5–2 times compared to previously available data. The characteristic features of the flora of the Greek juniper light forests of the Crimea, which confirmed their similarity and close relationship with the subarid woodlands of the more southern regions of the Mediterranean, were revealed. The high phytosozological value of these communities has been proved.

One more old British ivy cultivar 'Glymii' is revealed and identified in the Arboretum of the Nikitа Botanical Gardens. It has persisted here as a relict of cultivation since the XIX century. Morphological characters specific to the cultivar’s leaf blades in plants examined fit completely the authentic descriptions and images available in the literature. Meanwhile, this cultivar was frequently ascribed wrong characters and names in some sources and in the trade, and as we have revealed, plants labeled 'Glymii' from the “Fibrex” Hedera National Plant Collection (Great Britain) belong to another old cultivar 'Nigra'. This led to the appearance of serious mistakes in relevant modern literature. The value of the described find lies in the fact that we now have an authentic specimen of 'Glymii' at our disposal.

The article presents the results of three years of research (2020–2022) on the effect of weather conditions on the growth and development of 4 species and 7 cultivars of the genus Pennisetum L. in the Amur Branch of the Botanical Garden-Institute of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Blagoveshchensk). The weather conditions during the years of observation differed among themselves in the temperature regime and the nature of the distribution of precipitation, favorable and unfavorable periods for the growth and development of the studied plants. As a result of the research, it was found that 7 cultivars of P. glaucum and 2 species (P. setauceum, P. villosum) have completely passed all phases of development. The Jade Princess cultivar was excluded from further study, since it formed an insignificant number of seeds that did not correspond to a small sample. The species P. alopecuroides and P. orientale were also excluded in 2021–2022, as they did not go through all the phases of development. It was noted that all cultivars of P. glaucum require high daytime (30°С) and nighttime (not less than 25°С) temperatures in summer and a uniform amount of precipitation throughout the growing season. Excess moisture increases the period of plant growth, which adversely affects their productivity and decorative effect. The amount of precipitation for the growing seasons of the three years of research varied and exceeded the norm of the long-term average data, the highest deviation of 322 mm was noted in 2020. The air temperature in September 2022 was significantly different from the indicators of 2020–2021, and amounted to 6.5°С against the norm of 12.5°С, which probably led to the early completion of the growing season in all the studied species. The highest plant heights throughout the entire study period were observed in P. glaucum cultivars Majestic Violet (121 cm) and Purple Candles (122 cm). All studied cultivars of P. glaucum are recommended to be grown only in private farms. A high degree of resistance to adverse conditions, decorativeness during flowering, the ability to form full-fledged seeds, in the species P. setauceum and P. villosum, reflect the degree of their plasticity, indicate the success of the introduction and the prospects for landscaping the region.

Despite the fact that hybridization underlies both the evolution of the genus Rosa L. and the creation of a modern assortment of garden roses and is the main method of breeding these plants, the technique of hybridization, especially distant hybridization, has not yet been sufficiently developed. To develop such a technique in the Nikitsky Botanical Gardens, the experience of breeding work with roses over the past 70 years has been summarized. Three main stages of new rose cultivars breeding by hybridization method have been identified, as well as the optimal timing for them has been established. The first stage is carried out during the first year of work and includes the selection of parental pairs, preparation of the mother plant, pollen harvesting, artificial pollination, and then the collection and sowing of fruits. A number of cultivars, both prone and not prone to autogamy, have been identified. It has been established that in distant crosses, species should be used as paternal parental forms, and when crossing cultivars with different ploidy, triploid cultivars are used mainly as paternal forms, and tetraploid and diploid cultivars and species - as both paternal and maternal parental forms. The best terms for harvesting pollen, methods of its storage, as well as the optimal terms for artificial pollination, taking into account the age of the flower, weather conditions, and other factors, have been determined. Efficiency of reciprocal crosses, as well as repeated application of pollen to the stigmas of pistils for at least 5 days, has been established.