Background and objectives: Iran owns a rich and prestigious heritage of medicinal herbs but the majority of these plants have not yet undergone chemical, pharmacological and toxicological studies. In the present study some species form northern parts of Iran were evaluated for cytotoxicity. Methods: Sixteen medicinal plants were extracted with methanol and screened for their cytotoxic activitie...

In a complex soil environment, competitive and environmental factors interact with individual traits to influence plant’s root growth patterns ability compete for resources. Here, we examine how of focal plant, Plantago lanceolata L., responds resource heterogeneity presence two neighbor species, Centaurea jacea L.and Poa pratensis L. A full factorial experiment tested the effects nutrient hete...

Five species of eriophyoid mites were identified during surveys of mite fauna associated with plant species of the family Compositae from Southwest of East Azerbaijan province during 2010 and 2011. Two of them, Aceria virgatae n. sp. from Centaurea virgata Lam. and Aceria xeranthenzis n. sp. from Xeranthemumn squarrosum Boiss., were found to be new to science. No damage symptoms were observed o...

the mineral contents of centaura leave and seeds were determined by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (icp-aes). macro element concentrations (p, k, ca, mg and s) of samples were found at high levels. k was established at high level in both leave and seed samples of centaurea. while k contents of leaves changes between 7254.10 mg/kg (centaurea lycaonica) and 26396.36 mg/kg...

The genus Centaurea L. (Asteraceae, tribe Cardueae, subtribe Centaureinae) comprises ca. 600 species distributed in Asia, Europa, North Africa and America (Hickey and King, 1981; Heywood, 1979). Turkish flora numbers 187 species, 114 of which being endemic (Davis, 1975; Davis et al., 1988; Wagenitz et al., 1988; Guner et al., 2000; Duran and Duman, 2000; Turkoglu et al., 2003). Centaurea ptosim...

Seed predation is an important biotic filter that can influence abundance and spatial distributions of native species through differential effects on recruitment. This filter may also influence the relative abundance of nonnative plants within habitats and the communities' susceptibility to invasion via differences in granivore identity, abundance, and food preference. We evaluated the effect o...