The endemic and relic alpine–subalpine plant species in Shutman natural reserve of Kosovo and their conservation status

HAXHI HALILAJ¹, LIRIKA KUPE², AVDYL BAJRAMI^1*, XHAVIT MALA3

¹PhD candidate, Department of Plant Production, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, Agricultural University of Tirana, Albania

² Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, Agricultural University of Tirana, Albania

³ Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning -DAPK “Sharri Mountain”

Email: bajramiavdyl@gmail.com

Download PDF Fulltext

Abstract

On the territory of the Sharri National Park of Kosovo there are 16 strict natural protected areas, one of which is Shutman Reserve. Until now the biodiversity of endemic and relic plants in Shutman has not been completely described. The present study is the first on this subject for the Shutman Reserve. The purpose of the study is to investigate the biodiversity of endemic and relic plant species also their conservation status. The plants were collected during the vegetative period, May – September 2018. In total, in this paper are presented 42 vascular plants. From which, 24 species are Balkan endemics, 2 species are sub-endemics, 2 species are steno-endemics and 1specie is Central and South-eastern Europe endemic. Nearly 12 of Shutman’s investigated vascular plants are tertiary and glacial relics. A total of 24 taxa have a protection status. The biological type of species represented mainly by perennial herbaceous plants (95%). The largest percentage of floristic elements to describe appertain the Balkan type (40.48%) and Boral type (9.52%), whereas the hemi-cryptophytic dominate among the life forms, with 59.52%. The data of the paper showed that Reserve of Shutman has a very high level of endemic and relic species.

Keywords: Vascular plants, endangered species, floristic element, life form.