Plant diversity of Fereydoonkenar international wetland, Mazandaran

Freydoonkenar international complex wetland is one of 22 Iranian wetlands registered in Ramsar convention. It is a habitat for large varieties of rare immigrant birds particularly the critically endangered species، Siberian Crane. The surface of the area is 5427 ha and is located near to Caspian Sea. It comprises different types of natural and artificial habitats including wildlife refuge، pools، rice fields and lowland forest patches. Due to the fact that the knowledge of flora and fauna of any area is essential for further evaluation of environment and ecological potential of that area، a total of 248 vascular plant species belonging to 176 genera and 73 families were examined in the area. Poaceaea، Asteraceae، Papilionaceae، Polygonaceae and Rosaceae are the richeset plant families، respectively. Therophytes are the most abundant life forms and pluriregional plants possess the highest proportion among all plants studied in the area. All plants in the area belong to three distinct habitats، marginal or ruderal، aquatic and forest، which contain 56، 24، 20 percent of all plants. One of the most prominent features of the wetland is the occurrence of thermophil and endemic lowland Caspian forest in the area.