Patterns of Distribution in the Family Fabaceae (except Astragalus) in Iran

The geographic distribution of the family Fabaceae (except the genus Astragalus) in Iran has been analyzed using a dataset of 10408 georeferenced observations. The 429 species of the family is distributed in whole Iran; however, about half of the observations are from provinces like, Fars, Hormozgan, Tehran, Bushehr and Mazandaran. The family has 173 rare species and 117 endemic species. The highest record for the maximum distance between two observations of one species (MaxD) is 2140 kilometer. East-Azerbaijan, Khorasan Razavi, Fars, Lorestan and WestAzerbaijan have the highest number of rare species. Species richness was mapped with the point-to-grid richness analysis tool DIVA-GIS, using a 10×10 kilometer grid cell and the circular neighborhood option with a 50 km radius. High species richness occurs in Fars, Gilan and Lorestan; also in Central Alborz where the hotspot for endemic species is located. Forty four 10×10 kilometer grid cells are needed to capture all species at once. But ninety percent of the species can be captured in only twenty grid cells, which have the most conservative importance for this group of plants.