Flora and vegetation of Karagöl-Sahara National Park and its environment in Şavşat district

Flora and Vegetation of Karagöl-Sahara National Park and Its Environment In Şavşat District This study has been carried out for determination and contribution to the flora and vegetation of Şavşat area where has quite rich floristic composition between 1997-2001. The research area under review is taken place in Colchic province of Euro-Siberian floristic area of Holarctic region and is found in the A9 square according to grid system of Davis. On the other hand, the study area lies between 900 and 2700 m. elevation above the sea level. In this study, total 853 plant taxa belong to 92 families and 351 genera were determined. Twenty-two of them belong to Pteridophyta, the remaining 831 taxa were Spermatophyta which included 7 taxa from Gymnospermae and 824 taxa from Angiospermae. Angiospermae also included 713 taxa from Magnoliopsida and 111 taxa from Liliopsida. The largest families recorded were as follows: Compositae 92 taxa (10.79%), Leguminosae 76 taxa (8.91%), Gramineae 60 taxa (7.03%), Rosaceae 56 taxa (6.57%), Labiatae 47 taxa (5.51%), Cruciferae 45 taxa (5.28%), Scrophulariaceae 44 taxa (5.16%), Caryophyllaceae 39 taxa (4.57%), Rcmunculaceae 27 taxa (3.17%), Boraginaceae 26 taxa (3.05%) ve Liliaceae 22 taxa (2.50%). The percentage of phytogeographical origins of 375 taxa was determined. The distribution of the taxa according to the phytogeographical regions was as follows: 291 taxa (77.60%) Euro- Siberian, 75 taxa (20.00%) Irano-Turanian, 9 taxa (2.40%) Mediterranean. Endemism is 6.68% and included 57 endemic taxa. The endemic and rare non-endemic pants in the study area have been indicated to IUCN threat catagories. In this study, 154 taxa are determined as new records for the A9 square. The vegetation of the study area was investigated according to the Braun-Blanquet method. In the study area, 21 plant associations in six different vegetation types were determined. Sixteen of these are described as new syntaxa for science. The vegetation and plant association map of the study area was determined by Geographical Information Systems techniques.Key Words: Flora, Vegetation, Vegetation mapping, Şavşat, Artvin, Colchic.