L. L. Virachova & O. V. Dudryvtseva
Polar-alpine botanical garden-institute Kola Scientific Centre Russian Academy of Sciences. 184256 Kirovsk-6, Murmansk Region, Russia. E-mail: tnn@aprec.ru.
Data on the phenology of more than 5,000 plant accessions introduced from different eco-geographical regions of the world were accumulated at the Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden (PABG), as a result of long term introduction tests carried out north of the Polar Circle.
The data were used to create a database on the rare and endangered plant species of Russia and foreign countries introduced by the PABG into the Northern Territories. The database consists of 3 basic blocks:
· herbaceous perennials currently used in tests
· annual and biennial plants which were used in tests earlier
· perennials which were considered as not fit for the introduction into the Northern Territories.
Each record (i.e. the specimen identified to species level) within the mentioned blocks contains the following fields: taxonomic name; areal (latitude and longitude); life form; geographic source of introduction; the kind of propagule planted (seeds or plants from native habitats or from cultivation), duration of the introduction experiment, the plant’s potential as an economic resource, dates of phenetic development, frequency of flowering and fructification, plant total size and size of its flowers and inflorescence. Currently the PABG database includes 2000 records.