Ontomorphogenesis of Chamaecytisus podolicus (Fabaceae) and state of local populations in Ukraine

Chamaecytisus podolicus (Błocki) Klask. (Fabaceae) is a rare Podolian endemic species, known from Ukraine and Moldova. The species is listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine with the conservation status ‘vulnerable’ and is also included in international documents. According to the classification of life forms by Raunkier, the species is woody chamaephyte, according to the classification of types of biomorphs by Serebryakov belongs to the division of woody plants, type semi-woody shrub with a developed above-ground and underground shoot system. Plants of the species grow on limestone-rocky, meadow-steppe slopes, karst depressions, noted in the group association Festucion valesiacae Klika 1931 of the class Festuco–Brometea Br.-Bl. et Tx. ex Soó 1947. The results of studies of the state of a local populations of Ch. podolicus in natural condition, in particular in locus classicus of the species (Probabyn, Ivano-Frankivsk Оblast and Kadubivtsi, Chernivtsi Оblast, Ukraine) and in culture (Botanical Garden of the Podolian Agro-Technical University, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Khmelnytskyi Оblast) carried out in 2013–2023 are presented. The ontogenetic states and ontogenetic structure of the species are determined. For the first time for the species, four ontogenetic periods (latent, pregenerative, generative, and postgenerative) and 10 ontogenetic states of plants (seeds; seedlings; juvenile, immature, virginal, generative (g1–g3), subsenile, and senile) of Ch. рodolicus are described. Plants of the studied species do not form underground shoots (xylorhizomes), which is why it differs primarily from Ch. albus (Hacq.) Rothm. in terms of features of ontomorphogenesis. It was established that the density of different age individuals of the species in the vicinity of the village of Probabyn consists from single and small groups (15–18 each) to 30 ind./m2, and in the vicinity of the village of Kadubivtsi from single plants and groups up to 47–52 ind./m2. It was established that the studies local populations of the species are characterised, in general, by complete age composition. The ontogenetic age spectra of the species are left-skewed.