RESEARCH ON CYNARA CARDUNCULUS L. SPECIES UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF SOUTHEASTERN ROMANIA AREA Ciprian BOLOHAN, Doru Ioan MARIN, Mircea MIHALACHE, Leonard ILIE, Andreea Cristina OPREA University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, 59 M r ti Blvd, District 1, 011464, Bucharest, Romania Corresponding author email: cippy_bollo@yahoo.com Abstract Cynara cardunculus L. (cardon) is an alternative crop with multiple use (energy biomass, oil extraction, pharmaceuticals, food, honey plant, and others). Research conducted on three varieties of Cynara cardunculus L. (Gobbo di Nizza, C 816, Porto spineless) grown under the climatic conditions of Moara Domneasca Didactic Farm in 2012, shows the good ecological adaptability of the plant. By the end of the growing season (November), the average biomass production was 40,554.1 kg/ha -1 fresh matter and 7,192.0 kg/ha -1 dry matter, the maximum biomass production was recorded in the variety Porto Spineless (46,600.8 kg/ha -1 fresh matter, and 7,636.4 kg/ha -1 dry matter). Key words: alternative crop, Cynara cardunculus L., dry matter, fresh matter. INTRODUCTION Cynara Cardunclus L. (cardon) is a perennial herbaceous plant of Mediterranean origin (Franco, 1984), with a period of about 10 years of life (Archontoulis et al., 2009). It grows naturally in Europe, North Africa and South America (Gominho, 2001), generally in areas that are characterized by less favorable conditions like: high temperatures in summer, water deficit, thin, rocky and poorly productive soils (Abeliotis et al., 2009). The interest in growing this species interferes with the increasing development of concepts related to the need to protect the environment, primarily through the increased production of renewable energy. Considering the high performance of the overall biomass production, especially in the Mediterranean climate area (Fernández and Manzanares, 1990, Fernandez et al., 2006; Archontoulis et al., 2009; Angelini et al., 2009), and the rich oil seed production, Cynara cardunculus L. is a plant of interest as feedstock for biofuels and bioenergy (Sengo et al., 2010). Biomass production can vary between 14 and 20 t/ ha -1 in the first year of vegetation, and 30- 35 year t/ha-1 in the second year of vegetation Dalianis et al., 1996, Fernandez 1998, Gherbin and col., 2001, Mantineo et al., 2009). The vegetation period of the species Cynara cardunculus L. comprises nine main stages of growth and development, subdivided into secondary growth stages. Growth begins with seed germination (first year) or sprouting / bud development (in the second year and the following years of vegetation) - stage 0, and ends with the installation of senescence - stage 9 (Archontoulis et al., 2009). Characteristic for the cycle of vegetation of Cynara cardunculus is that several growth stages overlap or take place simultaneously; thus, the phenological description takes into account either the code for more advanced stages or both stages are indicated separately (Archontoulis et al., 2009). MATERIALS AND METHODS Research was conducted on the reddish preluvosoil of the Moara Domneasca Didactic Farm belonging to the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest (44°29 33 N, 26°15 20 E). The field was organized by the method of subdivided lots in three replications. Three cultivars of the Cynara cardunculus L. were analyzed: V 1 - Gobbo di Nizza V 2 - Cynara cardunculus C 816 V 3 - Porto spineless 429 Scientific Papers. Series A. Agronomy, Vol. LVI, 2013 ISSN 2285-5785; ISSN CD-ROM 2285-5793; ISSN Online 2285-5807; ISSN-L 2285-5785