Study of flora, life form, chrotype, diversity and evenness of Artemisia aucheri Boiss. and Artemisia melanolepis Boiss. habitats in South-East of Sabalan

The aim of this study was to investigate the flora, life form, chrotype, diversity and evenness of accompanying species of Artemisia melanolepis Boiss. and Artemisia aucheri Boiss. in the south east of Sabalan. Species were collected and identified. Overall, 82 identified plant species was belonging to 23 families and 61 genera. Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Lamiaceae and Poaceae families were the dominant families and Astragalus and Poa were the dominant genera in studied habitats. According to the Rankaier's system the identified species in the study area, were belonged: 69.5% to hemicryptophytes, 10.9% to therophytes, 13.4% to chamaephytes and 6% to geophytes, respectively. In the habitats of A. aucheri and A. melanolepis, hemicryptophytes is the dominant with 71 and 78.3% of accompanying species respectively having the highest frequency. In the habitats of A.aucheri, chamaephytes species with 18.4% is the second dominant life forms. The second life form of the accompanying species of A. melanolepis, with 13.5% is the therophytes. Geographical distribution of species in the study area indicates that the Iran-Turanian region with 56.09% has the highest frequency. In the habitats of A.aucheri and A. melanolepis, species with geographical distribution of Iran-Turanian region with 24 and 16 species, respectively is dominant. Results of the numerical diversity indices (Simpson and Shannon-Wiener) and evenness (Simpson and Smith-Wilson) in the study habitats shows that Simpson index have no significant differences in the accompanying species of two Artemisia species but the Shannon-Wiener diversity index in different elevation and aspects have a significant difference. Using the results of this study, in addition to the basic information and understanding of A.aucheri and A.melanolepis habitats, also in the habitat of these species for the improvement and reclamation the identified species can be used.