A. montana is a rare plant under strict protection and is included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species [8] and in the Red Data Books and Red Data Lists of many European countries [21, 22]. Despite the loss of habitats, A. montana is mainly harvested from the wild. done Dried flowers traded annually in Europe are estimated to be around 50t [23]. The collection of A. montana for medicinal purposes has also caused disappearance or reduction in the size of several European populations [24]. The pressure on natural sources of this plant is alleviated by a suitable use of arnica supply in the European region, where flower heads are harvested [25]. A. montana is protected by law; however, this form of protection is insufficient.
Therefore, over the last decades, other forms of active protection have appeared such as restoration and management of its natural habitats [9, 26, 27], plant introduction [27, 28], and attempts at field cultivation [20, 29, 30]. Biotechnological approaches for cultivation and enhancement of secondary metabolites in these species are very interesting [31, 32].The objective of this study was to describe the impact of different ways of plant propagation and introduction on the growth and reproduction mode of this species in the area of its geographical range in the eastern part of Poland and to obtain information on their suitability for climatic and edaphic conditions. During the six consecutive years of the experiment, the vegetative and reproductive traits were monitored as potentially important factors influencing the plant establishment success [33].
In the future, the knowledge of the part of the life history of these species can be helpful in cultivation, which may reduce the pressure on natural population and reintroduction of A. montana into their natural stands, where the abundance of arnica has declined.2. Materials and Methods2.1. Experimental Site ConditionsIn the present study, we used individuals taken from Botanical Garden UMCS in Lublin. The 6-year-long experiments (2007�C2012) were performed on experimental fields at the University of Life Sciences in Lublin located in the eastern part of Poland, 51��33��N; 22��44��E on grey-brown podsolic soil with the granulometric composition of heavy loamy sand. This site was chosen because the soil has physicochemical properties comparable to natural soil conditions for arnica [7, 9].
The climate of the Lubelszczyzna region is mainly affected by penetrating polar-oceanic masses of air and polar masses of continental air. The growing season in the middle and eastern part of these region lasts 211�C214 days AV-951 [34]. The average month precipitation ranged from 1.0mm in November 2011 to 189mm in July 2011, and the average month temperature ranged from ?8.1��C in January 2010 to 21.6��C in the cultivation years 2007�C2012 (Figure 1). However, the mean annual sum of precipitation in the study period ranged from 510.