The Endemic Plant Taxa of the Köprülü Kanyon National Park and Its Surroundings (Antalya-Isparta)

Abstract

This study has been conducted in 2003-2004 in order to identify the endemic plants of the Koprulu Kanyon National Park (Antalya-Isparta) and its surroundings. A total of 230 endemic taxa belonging to 29 families were determined in the national park and its surroundings. There are 229 taxa belonging to Angiospermae subdivision and 1 taxon belonging to Gymnospermae subdivision in these collected and identified endemic taxa from the research area. There is no endemic taxon in the Bryophyta and Pteridophyta divisions of the park. 218 of the 229 taxa belonging to the Angiospermae subdivision are in the Magnoliopsida (Dicotyledoneae) class and other 11 are in the Liliopsida (Monocotyledoneae) class. 18 taxa of the vascular plants are specific to the research area. 44 of endemic taxa are included in the endangered category. The number of priority conservation requiring taxa is 21. Endemic taxon number is almost 25% of total flora of the area. The top five families with the highest number of taxa in the study area are Lamiaceae (38), Caryophyllaceae (37), Asteraceae (26), Scrophulariaceae (20), Fabaceae (16) (Table 2). The 10 largest genera with the highest number of taxa are as follows: Silene (15), Astragalus (9), Sideritis (8), Verbascum (7), Centaurea (7), Stachys (6), Helichrysum (6), Alkanna (6), Veronica (5) and Minuartia (5). The distributions according to the phytogeographical regions of the endemic plants identified from the area is as follows: 59.565% Mediterranean elements (137 taxa), 23.478% Irano-Turanian elements (54 taxa), 0.304% Euro-Siberian elements (7 taxa) and 13.913% with unknown phytogeographical region (32 taxa). The distributions of these taxa according to the conservation status is as follows: CR (Critically Endangered): 3, EN (Endangered): 22, VU (Vulnerable): 34, LR (Low Risk): 164, (cd) (Conservation Dependent): 29, (lc) (Least Concern): 106, (nt) (Near Threatened): 29. In this study, menacing factors on the flora and vegetation of the area and suggestions against to the factors are given. In this paper, coordinates, habitats, altitudes, risk cathegories, to be which phytogeographical element of endemic plant taxa of the area, list of endemics grown only in the area were given. Almost 25 endemic taxa which were known from only type gathering have collected for the first time except for their type localities in the work. For more or less 30 endemic taxa were determined to their which phytogeographical region, for 5 of them changed risk cathegories.