A Floristic Study of Dehbar Zone in Torghabeh and Shandiz Region

The present study was conducted in Dehbar zone which is located in the West of Mashahd and the southwest of Torghabeh within a part of Binaloud Mountains. The average altitude of the region is 1793.6 meters. The average annual precipitation of the region is 245 mm which is obtained on the basis of the annual statistics of the base station (Hesar). The purpose of the present study is to determine the flora, life form, and the geographical distribution of the plant elements of Dehbar region in Torghabeh and Shandiz. On the basis of the frequent visits to the collected samples according to the conventional methods of plant taxonomy and using the required resources, the family, genus, species of each sample were determined. The life form of each plant species was determined through Rankayr method. The results indicated that Dehbar region contains 197 species belonging to 141 genus and 43 families. The most frequent families were Asteraceae (13.70%), Poacea (13.70%), and Fabaceae (10.65%). The frequency of Asteraceae may be due to the destructions in some areas of the region which can be taken as a warning sign for the region. On the basis of the experience, when the percentage of the destruction of vegetation increases in a region, some plant families, such as those of Asteraceae, increase in the flora of that region. The most important life forms were Hemicryptophytes (83.41%) and Chamaephytes (46.23%). The largest chorotype was Irano-Turanian with 126 (65.28%) species. The frequency of Hemichryptophytes plants is an indication of a cold climate and mountainous area.