Distribution and vegetative characteristics investigation of Amygdalus lycioides and its relationship with ecological factors in Ilam province

Amygdalus lycioides as exclusive and important species of wild almond, cover large areas of Iran including Ilam province. In this research, by aim of determine the effect of ecological factors on distribution and physiological properties of the species, first the range of almonds habitats was plotted on 1:50000 maps in Ilam province. Then, ecological factors, habitat characteristics and physical characteristics such as: qualitative and quantitative characteristics, in each ecological units, and were taken and recorded. It was used of stratification method (stratified random) for sampling. In each of the ecological units, depending on their area, at least three random plots of size 300 × 200 m in a north - south direction was implemented. All of region characteristics in terms of climate, topography, soils, geology, vegetation and associated characteristics of the species, such as height, crown diameter, etc. were recorded. In orther to evaluation of ecological effects on morphological characteristics, it is used randomly perfect method and compares means by Donkan's method and use of SPSS and SAS softwares. The results show that, the species is spread in 27 spots, with altitude ranging from 600 to 1900 meters above sea level and in four climates of the province. In semi-arid temperate climate and altitude range of 900 to 1100 meters, is reached to high canopy cover and density and the maximum its basic dimensions. It has not been observed significant differences between altitude and climate classes in this regards.