Distribution, ecological and phytocenotic features of Saposhnikovia divaricata on abandoned fields at steppe and forest-steppe districts of Zabaikalsky Krai

Abstract

The article analyzes data on the distribution, ecological and phytocenotic confinement of the perennial tap-rooted monocarpic Saposhnikovia divaricata, which has become the object of mass illegal harvesting of root medicinal raw materials in Zabaikalsky Krai in recent years. In 2018, S. divaricata was included in the Red Book of Zabaikalsky Krai, but with category 4 “species with an uncertain status”, which led to an urgent need to study this species. In 2022, two forest-steppe (Chitinsky and Karymsky) and three steppe (Krasnokamensky, Zabaikalsky and Borzinsky) districts of Zabaikalsky Krai were surveyed, here S. divaricata raw materials are harvested from numerous abandoned fields. It was revealed that S. divaricata is confined to fallows of middle and late stages of overgrowth on the site of steppes, on light soils. S. divaricata grows on fallows in small sod grass-forb communities, where it almost always has a low and very low abundance. In the forest-steppe areas, the phytocenotic confinement of S. divaricata to communities with codominance of Potentilla acervata, Artemisia leucophylla, Poa attenuata s.l. and etc. reveals. In the steppe regions, the connection with certain dominants is weak; among these are Stipa spp., Leymus chinensis and Lespedeza juncea, Artemisia frigida, Thalictrum squarrosum. The absence of S. divaricata in fallow communities, in addition to random reasons, may be due to the early stage of restorative succession, the lack of seed sources (unplowed steppe communities with S. divaricata), and massive harvesting of S. divaricata roots over several years.