An overview of the geobotanical structure of Turkish Pinus sylvestris and Carpinus betulus forests

Pinus L. and Carpinus L. are the two widely distributed genera of higher plants being represented by 80 and 170 species respectively. The former has 5 species in Turkey and latter 2 species namely; P.pinea, P.halepensis, P.brutia, P.sylvestris, P.nigra ssp.pallasiana, Carpinus betulus and C.orientalis. In this paper an attempt has been made to present an overview of the geobotanical structure of Pinus sylvestris L. and Carpinus betulus L. in Turkey. Out of 20.2 million hectares of forests in Turkey yellow pine covers nearly 1.3 million ha and hornbeam species around 10 thousand ha. The forests of P. sylvestris are found in North, Northeast Anatolia, on Murat mountains around Kutahya and C. betulus mainly in Thrace, Marmara, Black Sea and Inner Anatolia. P.sylvestris is represented by 9 associations;Pinus sylvestris-Vaccinum myrtillus,Pinus sylvestris Daphne glomerata, Pinus sylvestis Astragalus adzharicus, Pinus sylvestris-Lilium ciliatum, Pinus sylvestris-Daphne pontica, Pinus sylvestris-Populus tremula, Populo-Pinetum sylvestris, Pinus sylvestris-Orthilio secundo, Pinus sylvestris f.lazica-Epimedium pinnatum subsp.colchicum, Triseto-Pinetum sylvestris, whereas C.betulus has only 6 associations Carpinus betulus-Scaligeria tripartita, Carpinus betulus-Acer campestre, Quercus petraea ssp. ibericaCarpinus betulus, Carpinus betulus-Quercus petrae ssp. iberica, Fagus orientalis-Carpinus betulus. P.sylvestris associations are floristically rich having 275 taxa as compared to C.betulus forests which embody only 121 taxa. The life form spectrum of P.sylvestris forests includes 146 chamaephytes, 44 hemicryptophytes, 40 phanerophytes, 28 cryptophytes and 17 therophytes, whereas C.betulus forests include 23 phanerophytes, 39 chamephytes, 36 hemicryptophytes,14 cryptophytes and 8 therophytes. Phytogeographically a major part of the taxa in P.sylvestris forests are Euro-Siberian elements (24.4 %) followed by the Irano-Turanian (6.4 %) and Mediterranean (1.4 %). In C.betulus forests the distribution is as follows; Euro-Siberian-Euxine elements ( 83 %) followed by Mediterranean (14 %) and Irano-Turanian (3%). These observations stress the fact that geobotanically these forests prefer mainly high altitude moist habitats in the north and northeastern parts of Turkey.