The Morphology, Ecology, and Conservation Status of the Local Endemic Species Salsola grandis

Abstract

Turkey has a great biodiversity which is threaten by many factors like climate changes, urbanization, overgrazing, and some conservation precautions should be taken. Therefore, the target species should be known in details. The objective of this study is to provide information about ecology, morphology, and the population density of Salsola grandis which is a local endemic species from Nallihan, Ankara. It prefers clayey saline alkaline soils with a semi-arid cold Mediterranean climate. During the field surveys between May 2010 and November 2011, the morphometrical measurements of vegetative and generative organs, and the edaphic characteristics were determined. The total number of individuals of the population was calculated as 436.612 over 48.5 × 10-4 km2. It was determined that the species has a high ratio of death, 55%, during the seedling period which may be the reason of the narrow distribution with the preference of special edaphic characteristics.