Scientific publications

Field work for a new inventory of the flora of the Utrish Strict Nature Reserve that started in 2021 was continued in 2023.The survey was conducted in April and focused on the study of early flowering species. The entire territory of the reserve was covered by a network of floristic transects in which the occurrence of vascular plants was recorded. Nine of the encountered species were new for the Utrish Reserve territory, three of them being the most notable. Our record of Taraxacum gratum Štěpánek, Kirschner & Meierottis the second one in Russia, the species previously known only from Dagestan. Alyssum minutum Schltdl. ex DC. has previously been recorded in the Caucasus only from the Western Ciscaucasia and Eastern Transcaucasia. Crocus tauricus Steven ex Nyman previously appeared in the Caucasus only in collections from 1896. Another new species, Calystegia soldanella (L.) Roem. & Schult., was identified from a photo on thei Naturalist resource and was collected in June at our request. The latter two species are included in the third edition of the Red Data Book of Krasnodar Krai and the second edition of the Red Data Book of Russian Federation. According to our preliminary assessment of literary sources and the new data collected in 2023, the vascular plant flora of the Utrish Nature Reserve within its new boundaries comprises 988 species.