Flora of Beytepe Gendarmerie and Coast Guard Academy Campus (Ankara-Çankaya)

Even though many studies have been conducted on plant diversity in Ankara province and its surroundings, no floristic research has been encountered to date in Beytepe Gendarmerie and Coast Guard Academy Campus (Ankara-Çankaya) and its surroundings. The study area is located within the Irano-Turanian phytogeographic region, which is quite rich in terms of biodiversity, and is a rare region where natural life is well protected from anthropogenic effects compared to its surroundings. In this study, 13 field studies were carried out in the area in order to comprehensively investigate the plant diversity of the campus and its surroundings, and a total of 661 plant samples were collected. The plant samples were converted into herbarium material and were added to various herbarium, primarily the Hacettepe University Biology Department Herbarium (HUB). The scientific names of the plant samples were identified, and it was found that they belonged to a total of 50 families, 177 genera, 294 species and 300 taxa. The number of endemic species is 25, and its ratio to all species in the study area is 8.50%. Two of these endemic species (Glaucium grandiflorum var. torquatum and Verbascum leptocladum) are in the EN (endangered) category and need to be protected. The Asteraceae family is the richest family identified with 48 species and a 16.2% species ratio in the area, as seen in the entire northern hemisphere. The Astragalus genus, which is the richest genus distributed in the Irano-Turanian phytogeographic region, was also identified as the richest genus in the study area with 9 species. In the field, 52 species belonging to the Irano-Turanian phytogeographic region were identified, followed by 21 species belonging to the Mediterranean phytogeographic region and 9 species belonging to the European-Siberian phytogeographic region. In addition, identification keys for all taxa were prepared. Genomic DNAs of endemic taxa were extracted to be used in future studies. Among these, DNA sequences of ribosomal "internal transcribed spacer" regions of those that have never been studied with molecular systematic methods were obtained.