Rare plants of the floral complexes of the Vetlyanka river

Abstract

Floristic complexes of the Vetlyanka river are characterized by a high pool of rare plants with different protection categories in the Saratov region. There are 6 species in total (Bulbocodium versicolor, Hyacinthella leucophaea, Tulipa gesneriana, Iris pumila, I. halophila, and Scilla siberica). For the first time, these ecotopes were noted for S. siberica, B. versicolor, and Iris halophila. At the same time, S. siberica and I. halophila have narrow ecological amplitude. The studied cenopopulations of rare plants in the floristic complexes of the Vetlyanka river are stable in time and space. In the cenopopulations of the studied plants a process of self-renewal proceeds, which is hampered by a number of anthropogenic factors. The ontogenetic spectrum of the B. versicolor coenopopulation is a single-vertex spectrum with a high proportion of individuals of the generative fraction (70.2%). The age spectrum of the S. siberica cenopopulation is dominated by pregenerative plants – 67.4% of the total number of analyzed individuals with a maximum of immature individuals (46.5%). The high proportion of pregenerative plants (52.5%) in the coenopopulation of T. gesneriana indicates its ability to self-renewal and is characterized by a bimodal age spectrum. The coenopopulations of the studied species according to T. A. Rabotnov’s classification are normal incomplete.