THE UPDATED CHECK-LIST OF ALIEN PLANT SPECIES IN THE REPUBLIC OF MORDOVIA: A PATH FROM 2010 TO 2023

Abstract

The monitoring and inventory of the composition of alien plant species is an important step towards obtaining complete information about the biological diversity in a study area. By February 2023, the backbone reference on the alien flora composition in the Republic of Mordovia was the book “Vascular plants of the Republic of Mordovia (synopsis of flora)” published in 2010. This study was aimed to update the list of alien plant species for both the Republic of Mordovia and each municipal district by the nowadays (February 2023). The study was mainly focused on species (69 taxa) replenished the alien flora of the Republic of Mordovia in 2010-2023, and formation of the updated list of the alien flora of the region. The largest number of new species was found in the Saransk urban district (29 species), Temnikov district (25 species), Romodanovo district (11 species), and Ichalki district (10 species). The largest number of these species (74.6% of all floristic novelties) is ergasiophygophytes and xeno-ergasiophygophytes escaping to the wild. The main part of xenophytes is not naturalised plants (i. e. colonophytes and ephemerophytes). Four species ( Amaranthus paniculatus , Dianthus chinensis , Malva neglecta , Rosa dumalis , R. pratorum ) previously considered as aliens in the Republic of Mordovia were excluded from the list of the alien flora. As a result of the study, the alien flora of the Republic of Mordovia currently includes 456 species from 271 genera and 70 families. The highest number of alien species was found in the Saransk urban district (342 species), Ruzaevka district (272 species), and Temnikov district (244 species). At the same time, floras of Elniki district (133 species), Dubenki district (132 species), Atyuryevo district (124 species), and Bolshoe Ignatovo district (117 species) include the lowest number of alien species. This is probably caused by an underestimation of their alien flora, and this fact underlines the need for additional special investigations of aliens. Lists of the alien flora of both the Republic of Mordovia and each municipal district are available as a dataset in Zenodo. This material is intended to serve as a backbone reference for further studies of the alien flora in the Republic of Mordovia.