Abstract

Goutweed is a unique plant with multiple economically valuable features of an edible, excellent honey plant with medicinal properties and high feed value. It has a long history of use in medicine with all parts of the plant containing anti-rheumatic, diuretic, sedative and wound healing effects. An expedition was embarked to collect goutweed species in various regions across Russia. A unique collection consisting of 82 individual plants of goutweed from 48 different places was assembled. A total of 24 regions of the Russian Federation were examined, the route length was about 24000 km. This article presents the analysis of ecotopes and reveals the features of the development of goutweed based on the growing conditions. Throughout the expedition route, goutweed occurred mainly in deciduous forests and mixed forests (hardwoods). At the collection points, the most frequent woody plant (White birch), shrub (Hazel, Brittle buckthorn, Honeysuckle, etc.), herbaceous plant (Raspberry, Dioica nettle, yellow thistle, etc.) were found. Goutweed is a mesophyte, with discovery points mainly plains as the root system of goutweed is less adapted to steep territories with climate ranging between sharply continental to moderately continental under drought free conditions. In the laboratory conditions, plants from the southern regions continued the vegetative growth under shortening of daylight hours, therefore, under greenhouse conditions artificial lighting can be provided. Moreover, plants from the southern regions have more biomass, larger rhizomes, stems and leaves if grown in natural conditions, while the greenhouse plant phenotype remained practically the same. This will expedite the transition to environmentally friendly, sustainable agriculture, as a result of reduced application rates of chemical and biological protection products for plants, leading to the production of safe and high-quality food.