Ecological and Biological Characteristics of <i>Dactylorhiza incarnata</i> (Orchidaceae)in the Meadow Phytocenoses of the Central Caucasus
<b></b>—We studied variation of morphological characters, ontogenetic structure and vitality of 14 cenopopulations of <i>Dactylorhiza incarnata</i> (L.) Soó within the Kabardino-Balkar Republic in 2015–2019. The studies were conducted in the meadow plant communities under different conditions of anthropogenic load (recreation and grazing). The species demonstrates high phytocenotic plasticity of morphological characters (<i>I<sub>p</sub></i> = 41–87%) and high variation of morphological characters (\[C{{V}_{{\bar {{\cyrh}}\,{\text{{\cyrs}{\cyrr}}}}}}\ = 21.42–65.11%) under changing growth conditions. The growth enhancement in the individuals and the maximum increase of the cenopopulation vitality (<i>IVC</i> = 1.18–1.23) is observed in undisturbed wet meadows. The increase in proportion of generative individuals in ontogenetic spectra (42.3–57.5%), and the effective reproduction of cenopopulations is registered. Under the growing human-induced stress (recreation and grazing) the vitality of cenopopulations (<i>IVC</i> = 0.82–1.12) and proportion of generative individuals (8.8–29.1%) decreased, and the proportion of virginal individuals increased (34.2–42.7%). Herewith, on skelatal soils with low herbage projective cover (70–80%), high renewal is observed in coenopopulations with the individual density of 45.1–58.2 ind./m<sup>2</sup>.