Formation of the mountain flora collection in Botanical garden of Šiauliai university

• Main Author: Vainorienė, Rimanta
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: mountain flora; botanical garden collection; growth; plant introduction; Arctic
• Online Access: http://su.lvb.lt/SU:ELABAPDB3402399&prefLang=en_US

Mountain flora expositions arouse great interest in botanical garden visitors all over the world. They are important from biological, ecological and geographical viewpoints. The beginning of the mountain flora exposition collected in Botanical Garden of Šiauliai University dates back to 2001. The seeds of introduced plants come from world alpine and others botanical gardens. Presently decorative and geographical aspects as well as infrequency of the species are the criteria for plants to be included in the collection. In our collection are plants from mountains of the whole (the Alps, Pyrenees, Caucasus, Altai, Himalaya, Rocky mountains, New Zeland) and also of arctic zones. Presently in our collection are plants of more that 800 species and breeds, which belong to 45 families and 191 genera. In our Botanic Garden mountain plant adaptation wintering, flowering, cropping) and decorativeness are investigating and also evaluating how much species are affected by diseases and pets. Species most resistant to the climate of Northern Lithuania are selected by trial. Over 70 species of spontaneous mountain flora in Lithuania, 26 of them are included in Lithuanian Red Book (Rašomavičius et al., 2007). A mountain species Primula farinosa of local flora has been selected for the researches on biological diversity protection. Ex situ researches have been started on this species.