The paper presents the results of a research undertaken in 2022 on the vascular flora of a fragment of the Apa Mare valley located to the SE of Firiteaz, Arad county. This valley is an important component of the green infrastructure in the area and is not currently included in any protected area, nor has it been the subject of cormophyte inventory studies. The studied area is about 17 ha, on the right bank of the Apa Mare river and belongs to the organic agriculture farm BioFarmland Manufactura SRL (Firiteaz). In this heterogeneous area, composed of meadows normally mowed once a year, some areas of which were plowed in the past, a portion of reeds, clumps of trees and shrubs (willows, hawthorns, red dogwood), we identified more than 150 species, of which more than half have medicinal potential. After the drastic drought in the summer of 2022 and after the episode of heavy rains in September, we found that the vegetal carpet was drastically affected, but not by the large variation in water conditions, but due to illegal grazing with sheep, visible pressure all along the valley. We appreciate that the diversity of cormophytes is quite high, which contrasts with the surrounding agricultural landscape composed of arable crops. Remarkable is the presence of the species Eleocharis carniolica W.D.J. Koch (species from Annexes II and IV of the Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992), even if represented by a few individuals. We consider that the study of the biodiversity of this valley fragment must be extended to the whole valley as well as to other systematic groups of organisms in order to investigate the opportunity of establishing a community importance site, to join the Mlaștinile Murani - Birds directive site (site code: ROSPA0079) located downstream.

cormophytes, diversity, green infrastructure, Firiteaz

biology

Presentation: poster