Flora and vegetation of Kamilet Valley (Arhavi)

This study has been carried out for determination and contribution to the flora and vegetation of Kamilet Valley where has quite rich floristic composition during 2011-2016. The research area under review is taken place in Colchic province of Euro-Siberian floristic area of Holarctic and is found in the A8 square according to grid system of Davis. On the other hand, the study area lies between 300 and 3264 m. elevation above the sea level. In this study, total 651 plant taxa belong to 107 families and 361 genera were determined. 41 of them belong to Pteridophyta, the remaining 610 taxa were Spermatophyta which included 5 taxa from Gymnospermae and 605 taxa from Angiospermae. Angiospermae also included 504 taxa from Magnoliatae and 101 taxa from Liliatae. The largest families recorded were as follows: Asteraceae 79 taxa, Poaceae 44 taxa, Rosaceae 38 taxa, Fabaceae 30 taxa, Brassicaceae 28 taxa, Lamiaceae 28 taxa, Caryophyllaceae 21 taxa, Ranunculaceae 20 taxa, Boraginaceae 18 taxa and Apiaceae 17 taxa. The percentage of phytogeographical origins of 378 taxa (%58.07) was determined. The distribution of the taxa according to the phytogeographical regions was as follows: 326 taxa (86.24%) Euro-Siberian, 19 taxa (5.03%) Irano-Turanian, 5 taxa (1.32%) Mediterranean, 28 taxa (7.41%) cosmopolit. The life form spectrum of the taxon was as follows: Hemicryptophytes 253 taxa, Cryptophytes 196 taxa, Phanerophytes 46 taxa, Chamaephytes 68 taxa, Therophytes 86 taxa and Vascular Parasites 2 taxa. Endemism is 2.92% and included 19 endemic taxa. The endemic and rare non-endemic plants in the study area have been indicated to IUCN threat catagories. The vegetation of the study area was investigated on total of 168 quadrats according to the Braun-Blanquet method. In the study area, 11 plant associations in five different vegetation types were determined. Two 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 (GIS) techniques.