The vascular flora of Kopački rit Nature Park (Croatia)

Abstract

Kopački rit Nature Park is a large fluvial-marshy floodplain, situated in the northeastern Croatia, between courses of the Danube and the Drava Rivers. Due to exceptional biological and ecological values of this floodplain area in the middle course of the Danube River, it had been protected since 1967; proclaimed as Nature Park in 1999 and from 2012 is a part of the UNESCO Transboundary Biosphere Reserve Mura-Drava-Danube. This paper lists a total of 522 vascular plant taxa, classified in 295 genera and 96 families, recorded for Kopački rit Nature Park. The list is completed according to checked literature records and data for 114 new taxa, found during the floristic investigation carried outfrom 2010 to 2018. Taxonomic, ecological and phytogeographical analyses are presented. Hemicryptophytes dominate (39.3%) in the biological spectrum, followed by therophytes (23.8%), geophytes (12.6%) and hydrophytes (12.5%). In the chorological spectrum, the most numerous are plants of Eurasian floral elenent (32.8%), followed by Cosmopolites (27.4%), and European floral element (10.7%). Out of 53 recorded allochthonous plants, 26 are invasive alien plant species. According to protection and conservation status at the national level, 55 taxa are listed in the RedBook of Vascular Plants of Croatia and 53 taxa are strictly protected. One species, Marsilea quadrifolia, is listen in Annex II of the Habitat Directive.

Keywords

• Kopački rit
• flora
• Danube
• biodiversity