The article is devoted to the study of the anatomical structure of the vegetative organs of rare woody plants of Dagestan Taxus baccata L., Nitraria schoberi L., Juniperus polycarpos K. Koch, Celtis caucasica Willd., Betula raddeana Trautv. to analyze the characteristics of characters in connection with the conditions of growth and the possible application of the data obtained in the future to resolve taxonomic issues.

Fixation of shoots, roots and leaves, preparation of temporary micropreparations and description of the main structural elements of tissues were carried out in accordance with generally accepted methods. Material for research was harvested from Taxus baccata plants growing in the Termenlik area of Piedmont Dagestan, from Betula raddeana from the Gunib Plateau, from Juniperus polycarpos from the vicinity of the village of Gubden, Celtis caucasica growing in the city of Makhachkala. In species of a tree-like form, one-year-old shoots were selected for study from the northern side of the crowns at a level of 1.5–2 m from the ground. In Nitraria schoberi bushes, the structure of leaves taken from annual shoots, as well as aboveground and underground perennial stems and roots from the Sulak population, was studied.

In the anatomical structure of the leaves of T. baccata, significant changes in indicators were revealed, which is associated with their aging and a reduction in the life expectancy of needles from 10 possible to 5 years. It has been suggested that the places of growth of the yew berry in Dagestan are on the border of its range and are not optimal for it. When describing the structure of young shoots of J. polycarpos, characteristic features were identified depending on the age of the shoot. Species-specific is the presence of two- and three-sided types of shoots with a large number of stony and oily cells in leaf cushions. For the first time, a complete characterization of the leaf anatomy of C. caucasica, a typical xerophyte, is given, which is also reflected in the anatomical structure of its leaves. In N. schoberi, it was shown that the structural features of the leaves are associated with the maintenance of a high osmotic pressure of the protoplasm due to the growth of the species on saline soils and at high air temperatures. In B. raddeana, the distribution of stomata is hypostomatous, stomatal complexes are anamocytic, less often laterocytic (130.2 pcs. per 1 mm2), along the veins of both sides of the leaves there are simple unicellular awl-shaped (straight, crescentshaped) and filiform (straight and sinuous) hairs.

In T. baccata, C. caucasica, B. raddeana, quantitative data were obtained on the structure of leaves typical of vegetative shoots and the change in these parameters with age. In J. polycarpos, the structure of one-year and two-year-old stems was studied for the first time; in N. schoberi, the leaf, above-ground shoot, underground shoot, and root were described, and ecologically significant adaptive traits were identified.

The characteristic of 18 artificial forest plantations created at the beginning of the twentieth century, which are important as practical results of economic activity or forestry science, is given. Forest cultures were created in order to preserve artificial coniferous plantations in the green areas of the urban landscape, to involve in the introduction process a species phylogenetically near to local oak species as the fastest-growing breed, as a base for forest seed business, to preserve forest cultures of forest-forming breeds of the Western Caucasus. The forest cultures of the Abies nordmanniana were created with the aim of preserving the forest cultures of the relict forestforming breed of the Western Caucasus. They have cultural and educational significance. Artificial planting of Pinus nigra subsp. pallasiana in the lower mountain belt of the resort area of Goryachy Klyuch has recreational and sanitary-hygienic significance. Several artificial forest park plantations of Pinus nigra subsp. pallasiana were created in the urban environment of Kropotkin. A nursery of exotic plants has been preserved in the valley of the Yakornaya Schel River (50 species of fastgrowing exotics are grown, a unique collection of 30 species of pine trees has been collected). Currently, they are botanical natural monuments of the North-Western Caucasus.

The article presents some results of the inventory of the flora of Dagestan with taxonomic and biomorphological analyses. This work was based mainly on the studies carried out in the preparation of the Conspectus of the Dagestan flora. The study of natural flora during numerous expeditions and the analysis of published works on the flora of Dagestan also played a certain role. The work was carried out for the period 1994–2021, during which about 600 expeditions were organized in different regions of Dagestan. In addition, to clarify the species composition, the most important Herbariums, where collections from Dagestan are stored, were viewed.

The conducted studies have revealed that currently 3496 species belonging to 165 families are growing on the territory of Dagestan. 113 (3.23% of the total flora) of those species are introduced or naturalized into the natural environment. In Dagestan flora there are 16 large families with more than 50 species, which include 2529 species, what makes more than 72%. The first group consists of the Asteraceae family with 468 species (13.38% of the total number of species), Poaceae with 370 taxa (10.58%), and Fabaceae with 245 (7.01%). A distinctive feature of leading families range of the Dagestan flora, in contrast to other North Caucasian floras, is the high position of the Chenopodiaceae family and the presence of the Orchidaceae family in this group. There are 876 genera in the flora of Dagestan, 30 of them are leading ones with 20 or more species, what in total makes 26.46% (925 species) of the entire flora.

An analysis of the life forms of Dagestan flora species showed that the main predominant group is hemicryptophytes (Hk). This group includes 1954 species, which is about 56% of the total species composition. The second place in terms of the number of species is occupied by terophytes (T) with 841 species (24.06%). The next largest group of species is the group of cryptophytes (K), which includes 295 species (8.44%). Slightly fewer species belong to fanerophytes (Ph) - 278 species (7.95%), and the least represented in the flora are chamephytes (128 species), which makes only 3.66%. A distinctive feature of Dagestan in terms of the ratio of life forms is that as you move from west to east within the North Caucasus, a decrease in the proportion of hemicryptophytes is observed. In the flora of Karachay-Cherkessia, they make up about 65%, and in Dagestan they are only 56%. A decrease in the proportion of hemicryptophytes from west to east occurs with a simultaneous increase in the proportion of terophytes. In Karachay-Cherkessia they make up 16.89% of the flora, in Kabardino-Balkaria - 17.24%, in Chechnya - 22.7%, and in Dagestan almost a quarter of the flora - 24%.