Biological and morphological features of erems of Hyssopus officinalis L. (Lamiaceae Lindl.)

The paper describes morphology of erems, laboratory germination capacity and germination rate of the of Hyssopus officinalis plants grown under conditions of Zhytomyr Polissya. The research revealed insignificant differences between investigated hyssop varieties with respect to external structure, color, mass, and biometric indices of their erems. The mean mass index of 1000 erems for H. officialis ‘Markiz’ was 1.09 g, for ‘Atlant’ – 1.13 g, and for ‘Vodograj’ – 1.10 g. The length of erems was slightly higher (2.91 ± 0.06 mm) in ‘Atlant’, while the width and thickness of erems (1.09 ± 0.05 and 0.84 ± 0.03 mm respectively) were highest in ‘Vodograj’. Laboratory germination capacity of H. officialis erems showed tendency to decrease during a storage period of 5 years, however the germination rate was stable for the first 4 years. ‘Vodograj’ demonstrated the highest germination rate (84 %) and germination capacity (98.5 %) in general.