MORPHOLOGICAL CRITERIA OF ONTOGENETIC STATUS AND POPULATION STRUTURE OF ECBALLIUM ELATERIUM (L.) RICH. ON AZOV BICH OF KERCH PENINSULA (CRIMEA)

Ecballium elaterium (L.) Rich. is a Mediterranean-Eurasian steppe species with a wide geographic area. In Crimea, the area is disjunctive: the foothills, the southern coast and the Kerch Peninsula. It is listed in the Red Book of the Republic of Crimea [23] with a conservation status of 3. E. elaterium is a well-studied species, but there is no data on the population structure, which is a gap in its study as a protected component of the flora of Crimea. The purpose of this study is to establish the number, spatial structure, clarify the morphological criteria of age states, determine the ontogenetic structure of the new population. high numbers (1924 individuals) found in 2020 on the northern coast of the Azov Sea.