Identifying the habitats of forest trees and shrubs in Qom province with an emphasis on the representative stands of Tamarix (Tamarix spp.)

Herbal recognition and evaluation are the priorities for maintaining ecosystem stability and planning for their protection and restoration. This study was conducted to investigate the quantitative and qualitative status of the forest reserves of Qom province. There are 28187.30 hectares of forest and bushy lands in the province, with 21892.94 hectares of natural forest and 6294.36 hectares of planting forests. In this study were identified 28 species of trees and shrubs belonging to 13 families. Amygdalus scoparia and Pistacia mutica were the main trees and shrubs in the mountainous section, and Tamaeix spp were in the desert section. A forest distribution map was prepared by examining aerial photos and satellite images and referring to the fields. Considering the diversity of species and the importance of species of Tamarix spp. in the stability of the ecosystem, surveying was carried out using a random method with grid dimensions of 400x400 square meters and square sample plots with an area of 1600 square meters in sedum habitats. The crown cover of the Tamaeix spp. was varied from 5 to 50 percent. The maximum height of the sprout- clumps was 4.20 m, their average height was 2.35 m, and the diameter was less than 5 cm. There are about 11,000 hectares of the remnants of the Tamarix spp forest in Qom province, which is subject to destruction for various reasons, including cutting off rivers and runoff and the incidence of numerous droughts.