Study of Plant Biodiversity Around Protected Area of the Bazangan Lake

The purpose of this study was to investigate flora and plant species diversity around protected area of the Bazangan Lake. It is located in North-East of Mashhad with the altitude of 860 m.a.s.l. and between the longitude of 29ο 56' and latitude of 36 ο 18'. The total area is 102 ha. The results of field investigation were collection and identification of 112 plant species belonging to 96 genera and 35 families. Compositae, Gramineae, Cruciferae and Umbelliferae were the most abundant plant families of the area. Raunkiaer's Life form spectrum showed that 57% and 28% of the species were therophytes and hemi-cryptophytes, respectively. Chorological characteristics of the plant species showed that more than 50% and 30% were of Irano-Turanian and Irano-Turanian/Euro-Siberian chorotype, respectively. The collected data were subjected to analyses by specific diversity packages to characterize and obtain numerical indices of species diversity and its components.