Orchids of Azerbaijani Cemeteries.

Attila Molnár V,Kristóf Süveges,Viktor Löki,Marc Verbeeck

doi:10.3390/plants10122779

Attila Molnár V, Kristóf Süveges + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10122779

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Abstract

In order to explore their orchid flora, we performed surveys of 96 Azerbaijani burial places in 2018 and 2019. Altogether, 28 orchid taxa were found in 37 visited cemeteries. In the orchid diversity a remarkable pattern was observed: geographic latitude was significantly and positively related to the number of taxa and number of individuals. The most widespread and abundant orchids in Azerbaijani graveyards were Anacamptis pyramidalis and A. papilionacea (found in 23 and 8 cemeteries, respectively). Azerbaijani cemeteries can be important refuges for rare and threatened orchids, e.g., Himantoglossum formosum (three cemeteries), Ophrys sphegodes subsp. mammosa (eight), Orchis adenocheila (two), O. punctulata (three), O. stevenii (one) and Steveniella satyrioides (one). Epipactis turcica, detected in a single locality, was previously unknown to the flora of Azerbaijan. Additionally, we documented orchid tuber (salep) collection in two cemeteries.

Highlights

The Earth’s surface has changed dramatically in recent centuries, with human activities serve as a leading cause of the drastic reduction in the area of natural habitats [1,2]
The key conservation importance of Azerbaijani cemeteries can be explained by two facts: (1) Religious privileges protected these sacred sites and their natural values, because they have largely been exempt from forest and agricultural utilization ever since; and (2) the mostly fenced area of cemeteries provide protection against excessive grazing (Figure 2E)
Viable populations of the rare Orchis adenocheila were found in two cemeteries (Lerik, AZ-16; Agab@yli, AZ-52)

Summary

Introduction

The Earth’s surface has changed dramatically in recent centuries, with human activities serve as a leading cause of the drastic reduction in the area of natural habitats [1,2]. Conservation professionals have recognized that some of the anthropogenically influenced or even human-made habitats, such as abandoned mines and industrial sites [6,7,8], road verges [9,10,11], tree plantations [12,13,14], river dikes [15], burial mounds [16], and urban habitats [17,18], play significant roles in conserving biodiversity. Based on previous knowledge on the occurrence and diversity of orchids in Turkish [21,22,23,24], Albanian [25] and central European [26] burial grounds, we predicted potential conservational importance of traditional Caucasian cemeteries. This is an ancient, phylogenetically isolated [31]

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