Phytosociological characteristics of seven poorly known associations of serpentine rocky grassland vegetation of the order Halacsyetalia sendtneri in Serbia

Abstract

Although it is well known that dry open rocky grassland vegetation on shallow serpentine (ultramafic) soils represents one of the most interesting, highly endemic, and often studied vegetation types, the authors of several detailed studies of Balkan serpentine flora and vegetation suggested that the vegetation cover of Balkan ultramafics needs further exploration due to its heterogeneity. In this article, phytosociological characteristics of seven poorly known associations of grassland communities from the order Halacsyetalia sendtneri are analysed. In order to provide additional descriptions of these communities (with diagnosis and lists of diagnostic, dominant, and constant species), check their phytosociological validity, and confirm their syntaxonomical position, the stands of these communities were compared with 18 associations distributed throughout the area of serpentine outcrops in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. The results of cluster analysis confirmed that the analysed heretofore poorly known associations in the vegetation of open rocky serpentine grasslands are floristically well-defined.

Keywords

• Balkan Peninsula
• numerical analyses
• phytosociology
• syntaxonomy
• serpentine
• ultramafic grasslands