Study of flora, life forms and chorology of vegetation and soil seed bank of Manesht and Qalarang protected area in Ilam province

This study was carried out in Manesht and Qalarang protected area in Ilam province to study the flora of vegetation and soil seed bank. The study of vegetation was carried out with releve method and the soil seed bank was estimated using the seedling emergence method. In total, 192 plant species belonging to 38 families and 131 genera were identified, of which 67 species were common in both seed bank and vegetation and 13 and 112 were found only in the seed bank or in the vegetation, respectively. The vegetation of the study area was represented by 179 species, belonging to 125 genera and 36 families. The Asteraceae and Poaceae were the most dominant families in terms of number of species. The soil seed bank included fewer taxa: 80 species belonging to 63 genera and 26 families, respectively. The Asteraceae, Boraginaceae and Papilionaceae were the most dominant families in terms of number of species in the soil seed bank. The dominant life form in the soil seed bank and vegetation were Therophytes (42 %) and Hemicryptophytes (48 %) respectively. From the chorological point of view in both the soil seed bank and vegetation the largest proportion of the flora belongs to the Irano-Turanian (68.7 %) elements. The dominant growth forms in the soil seed bank included herbaceous annual (40 %), herbaceous perennial (32.5 %) and in the above-ground vegetation included herbaceous perennial (48.6 %) and herbaceous annual (25.1 %).