New Habitats of Limonium asterotrichum in Bulgaria

Abstract

The conducted research was focused on monitoring of two new habitats of Bulgarian endemic species Limonium asterotrichum, both found in the country in 2011. The habitats are located near the villages G. Asenovo, area “Propadnaloto blato”, and Beli Izvor, area “Pod tepeto”. The habitat in the region of G. Asenovo occupies an area of about 2.7 ha. Neither the size nor the state of the field has experienced changes in the period 2011 – 2013. The population size of the species Limonium asterotrichum has increased from 1130 plants in the first two years to 2000 plants in 2013. The habitat in Beli Izvor (area “Pod tepeto”) has a size of 0.0005 h and a population containing 8 plants. The study revealed no change either in size and condition of the field or in population size during the three years. In the course of this reserahc it was found that the Limonium asterotrichum species in both habitats are well developed with a height of 80 – 128 cm and basically have 3 – 7 flowering stems, whereby there are also some plants with 1 – 2 flowering stems. Over the years no change in the ratio of generative and vegetative plants within the populations was observed. In both populations generative plants dominated, thus ensuring the population stability.