Flora of Kopetdagh

Abstract

The modern flora of Kopetdagh includes 1,942 species, 806 genera, and 104 families of vascular plants, with 372 species of monocotyledons and 1,546 of dicotyledons. A prominent position in this flora is occupied by the typical Ancient Mediterranean families of Asteraceae, Poaceae, Fabaceae, Brassicaceae, and Chenopodiaceae. The desert and low arid mountain character of the flora is expressed by the diversity of Chenopodiaceae, Brassicaceae, and Boraginaceae.

The flora of Kopetdagh is generally an East Mediterranean one, with elements of low mountain subtropical flora (in Southwest Kopetdagh) and xerophylic highland flora. Fifty-five genera of this flora are not found in Middle Asia eastward from Kopetdagh. We have separated 102 types of geographic ranges, among which species of Ancient Mediterranean, Iranian, Irano-Turanian, and Kopetdagh-Khorassan ranges prevail. Our analysis confirms the connection of Kopetdagh flora with the autochthonous, Paleogene-Neogene Iranian center of origin of xerophylic flora; Kopetdagh lies on the periphery of this center.

Within Turkmenistan, 337 species of rare and endemic vascular plants are recorded in Kopetdagh, many of them narrow endemics of West, East, or Central Kopetdagh, Bolshoi or Malyi Balkhan, or the Krasnovodsk Plateau. These endemics are taxonomically related to the Kopetdagh-Khorassan, Iranian, Southwest Asian, Turanian, Transcaucasian, East Mediterranean, or Ancient Mediterranean species. Most endemic plants of Kopetdagh are neoendemic species, no older than the Pliocene.

Flora and vegetation of Kopetdagh have evolved since the Eocene under a constant climatic aridization. This has led to the xerophytizaton of flora through evolution of local xerophytes as well as dispersal of desert species from Iran and Turan. However, in the deep valleys of Southwest Kopetdagh, which have a mild subtropical climate, some representatives of ancient mesophylic flora have survived into the present.