tailieunhanh - Contributions to the moss flora of the Al-Ghab plain (north-west Syria)

Sixty mosses belonging to 12 families and 31 genera are presented from Al-Ghab plain in north-west Syria. Among these, 29 species are recorded for the first time for the bryophyte flora of Syria. | Turkish Journal of Botany Turk J Bot (2013) 37: 369-374 © TÜBİTAK doi: Research Article Contributions to the moss flora of the Al-Ghab plain (north-west Syria) 1 1, 2 2 2 Adnan ERDAĞ , Mesut KIRMACI *, Intissar TIZINI , Adnan KASHLAN , Badeea CHARAF ADDINE 1 Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Adnan Menderes University, 09010 Aydın, Turkey 2 Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of Aleppo, Syria Received: Accepted: Published Online: Printed: Abstract: Sixty mosses belonging to 12 families and 31 genera are presented from Al-Ghab plain in north-west Syria. Among these, 29 species are recorded for the first time for the bryophyte flora of Syria. Key words: Mosses, taxonomy, Al-Ghab plain, Syria 1. Introduction Lorentz (1868), Geheeb (1902), Schiffner (1913), and Rungby (1959) presented early bryofloristical studies on the study area. Relatively recent interest from native bryologists, such as Al-Aaraj and Nizam (1996), and Tizini (1999, 2008), has created important contributions regarding the bryoflora of Syria but it is still bryologically poorly known in spite of several recent studies performed in Turkey, Syria’s northern neighbour (., Erdağ & Kürschner, 2011; Kırmacı et al., 2012; Ören et al., 2012). According to Kürschner and Frey (2011), the Syrian bryoflora is represented by 142 bryophyte taxa (18 liverwort and 124 mosses) with 3 endemics: Fontinalis mesopotomica Schiffn., Philonotis fontana (Hedw.) Brid. var. syriaca (Lorentz) Paris, and Polytrichum commune Hedw. var. ehrenbergii Lorentz. The study area, Al-Ghab plain, is situated in northwest Syria. It is surrounded by Hamah to the south, Idlip to the north, and Latakia to the west (Figure). Water sources from the mountainous western part make the plain useful for agricultural activities. Annual precipitation in the area varies between 300 and 1000 mm/year .