Studies on the Flora of Serpentine and Other Metalliferous Areas of Western Turkey

Abstract

Soils and vegetation of metalliferous areas in western Turkey have been studied for several reasons: 1) to add to our knowledge of the distribution of a number of serpentine plants endemic to Turkey; 2) to try to re-locate several very rare serpentine endemic species (some known from only a single collection) and to see if any new species can be found; 3) to add to our knowledge of Turkish Ni hyperaccumulators; 4) to see if areas of debris from lead and zinc mining carry characteristic floras of the type that are well-known in Europe, and to see whether any of the species found there show unusual metal accumulation. The field studies in several serpentine areas (Ezine, Dursunbey-Kutahya, Fethiye-Marmaris, Findikpinari, Pozanti-Camardi, and near Ankara) have led to the re-collection of rare species such as Alyssum pinifolium, Aethionema dumanii, Thlaspi cariense, Silene cserei sap. aeoniopsis, Cochlearia sempervivum and Centaurium serpentinicola. Many Ni-accumulating specimens of Alyssum, Thlaspi and Cochlearia were obtained, including several containing >2% Ni in the dry matter. The lead/zinc areas have apparently not developed a specialist flora, nor were there any extreme examples of accumulation of Zn, Pb, Cd, Cu or As.