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The high mountain perennial pea Vavilovia formosa (Steven) Fed., commonly known as beautiful vavilovia, is a rare species of the high alpine flora of Armenia bound to scree habitats. Populations of V. formosa in Armenia, as well as in other regions of the world, are endangered and need to be studied and preserved both in natural and ex situ conditions. Studies of the relic alpine pea V. formosa, unique in its bioecological features and beauty, were initiated in Armenia in the20-30s of the last century and continue at the present time. Thanks to numerous expeditions tothe hard-to-reach habitats of Vavilovia in the Gegham and Syunik highlands, Zangezur ridge, manyresearchers of the Armenian flora collected herbarium material, conducted ecological and cоenoticstudies, analyzed karyology on the basis of local populations, repeatedly conducted experimentson growing Vavilovia in laboratory conditions and in botanical gardens of Armenia. As a result of fieldobservations, information was obtained on the status of Vavilovia populations in different regionsof the republic, in natural conditions, floristic and coenotic composition of habitats at the Aknasarand Sevkatar (Sevsar) mountain peaks, on slopes near the Aknalich lake, of the Mets Ishkhansarmountain, and near the Ughtasar mountain peak. One of the main natural threats leading to thechange in and shrinking of Vavilovia populations is the overgrowth of mobile scree habitats with turf-forming grasses, which creates conditions for the development of mountain-meadow vegetationon screes. The ex situ conservation strategy for V. formosa is one of the possible ways to evaluateits adaptive capacity to environmental changes, as well as to conserve it and use in basic andapplied research. An experiment on the introduction and cultivation of Vavilovia conducted by theYerevan and Sevan Botanical Gardens of Armenia has yielded some data on biomorphological andecophysiological features in ex situ conditions.

Wild perennial pea Vavilovia formosa is a relic and an endangered species of the upper alpine flora of Armenia, specialized to scree habitats. The populations of V. formosa in Armenia, as well as in other sites of the world, are in danger of extinction and need both in situ and ex situ complementary investigation and conservation. Present article contains information on V. formosa Aknasar mountain population studies. Data on natural conditions, flora composition, ecological and coenotic characteristic of the habitat and bio-ecological features of V. formosa are given. The present state of Vavilovia population of mountain Aknasar is satisfactory. The activation of seed reproduction along with vegetative propagation is observed. One of the natural threats leading to the change and reduction of Vavilovia population was estimated to be the overgrowing of mobile scree habitats with turf-forming grasses, which creates conditions for the mountain-meadow vegetation development. V. formosa ex situ conservation strategy is one of the possible ways of its adaptive capacity estimation to environment changes as well as for its saving and using in basic and applied researches. An introductory experiment on the cultivation of Vavilovia in the Yerevan and Sevan Botanical Gardens has started, and some data on bio-morphological and eco-physiological peculiarities under ex situ conditions were obtained.