Nomenclature notes on vegetation of the Salicetea purpureae Moor 1958 class in Ukraine

Abstract

A brief history of the syntaxonomic studies of floodplain vegetation of the Salicetea purpureae class in Ukraine is presented and the tasks of further research are established. Our study has shown that the vegetation of the class includes more than 30 associations, which belong to 6 alliances and 2 orders. According to the ecological peculiarities, they are divided into willow shrubs on the gravel banks of streams in the montane and subalpine belts of the temperate and boreal zones of Europe and the Caucasus (Salicion eleagno-daphnoidis), willow and poplar forests of lowland and foothill rivers formed on alluvium in the nemoral zone of Europe and at high altitudes in the Mediterranean region (Salicion albae), willow shrubs on the sandy-loamy soils of the river banks of lowlands and foothills of the nemoral zone of Europe (Salicion triandrae), willow shrubs on riverine dunes in central Ukraine (Artemisio dniproicae-Salicion acutifoliae), shrubs on temporarily flooded clay soils in central Ukraine (Rubo caesi-Amorphion fruticosae). The problems of using the phytosociological nomenclature during the analysis of the Salicetea purpureae vegetation on the territory of Ukraine are highlighted. It was found that half of the syntaxa listed in Ukrainian geobotanical literature are synonyms, published invalidly, or need typification. Every syntaxon is accompanied by explanations of its non-validity with citations of the relevant articles published in the 4th edition of the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature. In addition to the incorrectly cited associations, two of the six alliances (Artemisio dniproicae-Salicion acutifoliae, Rubo caesii-Amorphion fruticosae) also require correction because their description was based on the invalid nomenclatural types formed by the selection of species which are invalid according to The Euro+Med PlantBase. In this paper, we aimed to analyze the studies on the vegetation of the Salicetea purpureae class on the territory of Ukraine using the Braun–Blanquet approach, determine the issues that require more detailed research in the future, and make some notes on nomenclature discordances. Such review makes it possible to determine all mismatches in phytosociological nomenclature.

Keywords

• willow forests
• vegetation classification
• syntaxonomy
• phytosociological nomenclature
• ukraine