Typical steppe plants. Flora of the steppe zone: photos, pictures, videos of steppe vegetation

Steppes are a type of vegetation represented by a community of drought-resistant perennial herbaceous plants with a predominance of turf grasses, less often sedges and onions.

They are common where there is very little rainfall and the climate is moderately warm.

Habitat

If we analyze the geographical location of steppe reliefs on the globe, we will find that the most common steppes are formed in the interior areas of the continent.

The steppe regions of the temperate zones of the southern and northern hemispheres are characterized by treeless watersheds, a dry hot climate, and the dominance of cereal greens on dark chestnut and black soil lands.

Steppes, modified by pasture digression, predominate in area and show short-grass grazing communities with a predominance of fescue and wormwood. Among other things, the steppe includes forbs and all kinds of shrubs. In addition to the mountain steppes, solonetzic steppe plants, such as wormwood, chamomile, etc., remained in small fragments on the plain. Thymes, cornflowers and other plants are specific for the steppe on gravelly lands.

Systematization

According to the research of scientists, according to the classification, steppe plants can be divided into two types:

• meadow (in the forest-steppe zone);
• typical (in the steppe zone).

Exists a large number of diverse different plants, let's look at just a few of them in more detail:

Biennial or perennial herbaceous plant. The height of the plant is about one and a half meters. The stem is single, straight, spreading upward. The leaves are pinnate, large, from 10 to 25 cm long and 4 to 10 cm wide. The leaves are rosette petiole, sessile, enclosing the stem.

They are green on top and covered with snow-white felt below, with tiny spines along the edges. The flowers are collected in spherical inflorescences of bluish-white color. The diameter of the spherical head is 4-5 cm. The fruits are achenes. Grows among bushes in river valleys, wastelands and forest edges.

Perennial - family Asteraceae with an erect stem. Its height varies from 45 to 62 cm. The stem leaves are pinnately dissected, separated into great amount lobes The inflorescence is corymbose.

Small, snow-white flowers (pink-lilac or red). Blooms quite long time in June-August, grows on hills everywhere, can also grow on meadow steppe. Often found on steep slopes.

. Perennial herbaceous plant of the Liliaceae family. The stem of asparagus is erect, height up to 150 cm, branched. The leaves are reduced to scales and are created in the axils of the stem. modified shoots, resembling leaves. The camouflage stem is smooth, bright, and forms shoots.

They are consumed as a vegetable plant. The flowers are emerald yellow. The fruit is scarlet (berry). Blooms in June – July. Asparagus can grow in meadows, among small forests, in steppes and, of course, on mountain slopes.

Herbaceous plant of the family ranunculaceae. It is characterized by early flowering (from 40 to 50 days). The very first flowers, as always, are large, pale yellow, amber, terminal.

At the beginning of flowering (the height of the bush is from 10 to 15 cm), and at the time of fruiting it reaches 35 - 65 cm. It is found almost everywhere:

• each bush has from 3 to 15 generative ones;
• and from 4 to 22 vegetative processes.

. The plant is from the Lamiaceae family. It has a creeping and branched stem. It takes root, forming new stems. The leaves are round, kidney-shaped, petiolate. Flowers 3-5 pcs. are located in the axils of the middle leaves, they are tiny, violet-blue or azure-lilac in color.

The pedicels are five times shorter than the calyx and are provided with bracts. The height of the stems varies from 10 to 35 cm. It blooms in May-June. They can grow along ravines and on hillsides.

Perennial herbaceous plant - family St. John's wort. The stem is straight, from 45 to 75 cm in height, glabrous, with 2 edges. The leaves are elongated and sessile. The leaves are scattered with dotted containers that look like holes, hence the name - St. John's wort.

The flowers are countless, yellow-golden hue, collected in a wide paniculate, almost corymbose inflorescence. Sepals are pointed with a complete edge. The petals are twice as long as the sepals and bloom in June-July. The rhizome is not thick and stems extend from it.

Veronica dubravnaya

Perennial herbaceous plant. Green shoots persist all year round. The leaves are placed oppositely. The flower has one pistil and two stamens. Veronica fruit is compressed box. Grows in meadow areas.

. Plant buckwheat family, height ranges from 15 to 40 cm. It has even spreading stems. The leaves are lanceolate or elliptic, tiny, with a short root. The flowers are present in the axils of the leaves and are divided throughout the plant. The corolla of the flower is dull pink. The fruit is a nut (triangular).

Blooms from May to October. It grows along paths, on avenues, in courtyards, and in pastures. By the way, on pastures where there is a huge overload of livestock, all plant variations suffer, although not knotweed.

Common cress

Herbaceous plant - belongs to the family cruciferous. Bright greenish rosettes of colza made of intricate pinnately dissected leaves. Blooms in May-June.

With an abundance of moisture and sun from melted snow, the cress lightning fast a flowering shoot with a cluster of yellow flowers extends.

The fruit is multi-seeded, strong. The honey plant is excellent.

Violet

Belongs to the violet family. The stem reaches about 30 cm. The petioles of large broad-heart-shaped leaves (grooved). Stipules are large, rusty-red. It grows on a hill, in places with low grass cover. It will also grow well on rocky surface areas.

. Family (Asteraceae). The root is woody, vertical, forming branched flowering shoots and straight uneven purple branched flowering shoots.

The leaves of the shoots and the lower stem leaves are three times pinnately dissected, the lobules are 3-10 mm long (narrow-linear), slightly pointed, the upper and middle stem leaves are sessile, short, narrow-linear. The outer leaves are oval, almost rounded, plastic, green along the back, the inner leaves are filmy-edged.

The steppe zone is considered one of the main land biomes. Plants in the steppe are quite resistant to arid climates and can coexist for a long time under conditions of moisture deficiency.

What plants grow in the steppe?

• Mountain, steppes with lush alpine vegetation and high-mountain ones, characterized by sparse and inconspicuous vegetation, mainly consisting of grains and breakweed.
• Meadow. Steppes, characterized by the presence of small forests forming clearings and edges.
• Real ones. Steppes with a large predominance of feather grass and fescue growing on them. These are the most typical plants of the steppe.
• Saz - steppes, consisting of plants adapting to arid climates, shrubs.
• Desert steppes on which desert grasses grow: tumbleweed, wormwood, and twig
• It is also necessary to say a few words about forest-steppes, which are characterized by the alternation of deciduous forests and coniferous forests with areas of steppes, since steppe and forest-steppe plants differ only in subspecies.

The steppe has its embodiment on every continent except Antarctica, and on different continents it has its own name: in North America it is prairie, in South America- pampa (pampas), in South America, Africa and Australia - this is savanna. In New Zealand the steppe is called tussoki.

Let's take a closer look at what plants grow in the steppe.

Types of steppe plants

• Krupka. This is an annual plant of the cruciferous family, growing in the highlands and tundra. There are about 100 varieties of semolina, characteristic of our steppes. It is characterized by a branched stem with oblong leaves, topped with tassels of yellow flowers. Flowering period April - July. In folk herbal medicine, semolina is used as a hemostatic, expectorant and diuretic.
• Breaker. It is also an annual plant, approximately 25 cm long and has oblong leaves, many flower shoots, each of which ends in an inflorescence consisting of tiny white flowers. Prolomnik is used as an anti-inflammatory, analgesic, diuretic and hemostatic, as well as an anticonvulsant for epilepsy
• Poppy. Depending on the species, it is an annual or perennial herb with flower buds on long stalks. It grows on rocky slopes, near mountain streams and rivers, in fields, along roads. And although poppies are poisonous, they are widely used in herbal medicine as a sedative and hypnotic for insomnia, as well as for some diseases of the intestines and bladder.
• Tulips are perennial herbaceous plants of the steppe of the lily family with large and bright flowers. They mainly grow in semi-desert, desert and mountainous areas.
• Astragalus. There are more than 950 species of this plant of various colors and shades, growing in desert and dry steppes, in forest zones and alpine meadows. It is widely used for edema, dropsy, gastroenteritis, diseases of the spleen, as a tonic, as well as for headaches and hypertension.
• Feather grass. It is also a diverse herb. There are more than 60 of them, and the most common of them is feather feather grass. This is a perennial plant of the grass family. Feather grass grows up to 1 meter tall with smooth stems and spinous leaves. Feather grass is used as a decoction in milk for goiter and paralysis.
• Mullein. This is a large (up to 2 m) plant with hairy leaves and large yellow flowers. Studies of the plant have shown the presence in its flowers of many useful substances, such as flavonoids, saponins, coumarin, gum, essential oil, glycoside aucubin, content of ascorbic acid and carotene. Therefore, the plant is actively used as a food additive in salads and hot dishes, in preparing drinks, and also eaten fresh.
• Melissa officinalis. This is perennial high grass with a pronounced lemon scent. The stems of the plant are crowned with bluish-purple flowers, which are collected in false rings. Melissa leaves contain essential oil, ascorbic acid, and some organic acids.
• Camel thorn is a subshrub, up to 1 meter in height, with a powerful root system, bare stems with long spines and red (pink) flowers. Camel thorn is widespread in the riverine area, growing along ditches and canals, in wastelands and irrigated lands. The plant contains many vitamins, some organic acids, rubber, resins, tannins, essential oil, as well as carotene and wax. A decoction of the plant is used for colitis, gastritis and stomach ulcers.
• Sagebrush. This is a herbaceous or subshrub plant found almost everywhere. The entire plant has a straight stem with thin pinnately divided leaves and yellowish flowers collected in inflorescences. Wormwood is used as spicy plant, and essential oil is used in perfumes and cosmetics. Wormwood also has a meaning as forage plant for livestock.
• So, we looked at only some types of steppe plants. And, of course, differences in the landscape leave their mark on the appearance of the herbs growing on it, but, nevertheless, some general properties. So steppe plants are characterized by:
  • Branched root system
  • Root bulbs
  • Fleshy stems and thin, narrow leaves

A large variety of plants grow in the steppes, such as:

• Prairie sage;
• Datura;
• Red clover;
• Common Dubrovnik;
• Common toadflax;
• Prairie sage;
• Zopnik tuberiferous;
• Spiny curly, etc.

• I live in a steppe area.

  I really like the flowering feather grass. It grows on the Arabat Spit of the Azov Sea.

  At the end of April - beginning of May, blooming tulips are beautiful.

  

  How useful is sage! And how wonderful he looks!

  

  And look at the red clover! I was once visiting beekeepers, and we went to clover fields. The sight of the clover and the mass of bees above them was breathtaking.

  

  Or you may also encounter dope.

  

  And how touching is the vitality of the knotweed grass.

  

  Steppe refers to flat areas with predominant grassy vegetation (almost complete absence of trees and shrubs, with the exception of artificial plantings). The steppe zone is located in the temperate and subtropical zones.

  The steppes are dominated by cereal plants (feather grass, fescue, bluegrass, tonkonog, and sheep).

  Also in the steppes, the following plants are often found: immortelle, astragalus, bean grass, speedwell, kermek, wormwood, plantain, sage, yarrow, eryngium, tsmin, bruise, thyme.

  The steppe has a fairly wide variety of plants. Mostly herbaceous plants grow there: clover, sweet clover, wheatgrass, sage, tulips, poppy, feather grass, angelica, thyme, wormwood, bellflower, yarrow, mullein, semolina, thyme and much more.

  They grow: sage, tulip, astragalus, cutter. These are the plants, I answered 5 myself!

  Plants growing in the steppes are very diverse, but they have general signs- they are dry-resistant, can tolerate heat, relatively small leaves. The flora of the steppes is mainly represented by herbaceous plants. Among them there are food plants:

  Honey-bearing herbs, such as budra, speedwell, heather, knotweed and so on.

  Many medicinal plants.

  Trees do not grow in the steppe and even shrubs cannot survive there. It's all about the winds, and because of them, moisture from the ground evaporates very quickly, without reaching the deep layers of the soil, so there is only enough water for herbs.

  The growth of steppe grasses can reach a height of more than 1 meter.

  These plants are: dream grass, poppy, crocuses, feather grass, blackthorn, etc.

  

  In the steppe grow those plants that can live for a long time without moisture, they are afraid of the scorching sun, drought, and strong winds. These include: self-seeded poppy, handsome tulip, feather grass, angelica, thyme, yarrow, wormwood, fluffy cream meadowsweet, bellflower, prickly grasshopper, mountain clover, adonis.

  

  Many different plants grow in the steppe, here are some of them.

  Common mullein has large yellow flowers and can reach 2 meters in height. IN folk medicine flowers are used for coughs.

  

  Wormwood is a perennial herb that has a thick woody root.

  

  And also white clover, breaker, poppy, semolina, tulips, astragalus, fescue, thyme and many others.

  In the steppe grows a huge species diversity plants. The landscape of the steppes, of course, affects appearance plants. For steppe plants, the following similar characteristics can be distinguished:

  1) branched root system;

  2) roots in the form of bulbs;

  3) narrow leaves;

  4) mostly fleshy stems.

  So, the following plants grow in the steppe:

  • Krupka. annual plant with a branched stem and oblong leaves with yellow flowers. Blooms in April-July;
  • Breaker. An annual plant with oblong leaves and many flower shoots ending in inflorescences with small white flowers;
  • Poppy. It can be annual or perennial on long stalks with flower buds.
  • Tulips. Perennial plants with large flowers and fleshy stems;
  • Astragalus. Grows even in the driest steppes, its flowers can have more than 950 types of shades.
  • Feather grass. A perennial plant with a smooth stem (up to 1 meter tall) and spinous leaves.

  Also known to everyone, lemon balm, camel thorn and wormwood grow in the steppe.

  I only provided short list steppe plants.

  The steppe is an almost endless expanse in which tall and not so tall grasses grow and very rarely you can find thickets of bushes or a lonely group of trees. There are steppes on all continents and therefore steppe plants can vary greatly, but let's focus on the plants growing in our steppes. First of all, the most common steppe plant can be called Feather grass, which in some places is called Tyrsa.

Many years ago, large areas of land were occupied by endless steppe or wild fields. However, the unusually fertile lands characteristic of the steppe zone became main reason her plowing and now this natural area in its original form can only be found in nature reserves and national parks. Let's take a closer look at the plants and animals of the steppe.

general characteristics

The steppe zone is dominated by flat terrain with a complete absence of trees. A thick turf layer formed as a result of the strong interweaving of rhizomes of steppe plants, lack of moisture and long dry periods are unfavorable factors for the germination of tree seeds.

For this reason, the flora of the steppes is represented by all kinds of herbs, bulbous plants and rare shrubs.

A typical representative of the steppe flora is feather grass. This is a perennial herb with a short rhizome and long narrow leaves that look like wire. The main enemy of feather grass, like all steppe plants, is uncontrolled grazing, during which the grass is mercilessly trampled down.

Rice. 1. Feather grass.

Behind long years evolution, all steppe plants were able to adapt to the conditions of the arid natural zone.
Their features include:

• Small narrow leaves - to reduce the surface area for moisture evaporation. Some types of plants are able to curl their leaves during periods of drought, thereby not wasting precious moisture.
• Foliage color is grayish, sandy, bluish-green. It is almost impossible to find plants with bright green leaves in the steppe.
• Many plants have branched root system, with the help of which they extract moisture from the ground.
• Steppe grasses can tolerate heat and long dry periods very well.

Along the banks of rivers flowing in steppe areas, you can find small trees and shrubs: willow, wild grapes, hawthorn. In places with saline soil, special plants grow that are able to survive in such difficult conditions: sweda, saline wormwood, and saltwort. Among the animals of the steppe, the greatest diversity of species are insects and rodents.

Rice. 2. Soleros.

Steppe plants in spring

Always reserved most of the year, in early spring The steppe is literally transforming before our eyes. Thanks to the spring rains, the earth is covered with a colorful carpet of various flowering plants: wild tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, poppies, crocuses.

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Steppe flowers differ from their cultivated counterparts in being much more modest in size and somewhat unusual shapes. A typical example is the Schrenk tulip - an unusually colorful steppe flower listed in the Red Book. Under the strictest prohibition There is a collection of plants, digging up bulbs, selling bouquets of these flowers and their bulbs.

Rice. 3. Schrenk's Tulip.

Before the onset of heat, steppe plants have time to bloom and form seeds, storing the necessary nutrients in the tubers, which will allow them to bloom next year.

The steppes are the main value for which the reserve was created. The steppes represented on its territory are classified as northern, or meadow. This means that they are located at the northern limit of the distribution of steppe vegetation.

Among other types of steppes, meadow steppes have suffered the most from human development. The main spaces once occupied by them turned into arable land. All survivors in Eastern Europe areas of meadow steppes lying on watersheds (plakors) can currently be counted on one hand. The Central Black Earth Reserve includes the largest of them - the Streletskaya (730 hectares) and Kozatskaya (720 hectares) steppes. Other more or less large surviving areas of the meadow steppes of Russia are the Yamskaya steppe of the Belogorye nature reserve (Belgorod region, 410 hectares), the Kuncherovskaya forest-steppe and Poperechenskaya steppe of the Privolzhskaya forest-steppe nature reserve (Penza region, together 450 hectares).

The Streletskaya and Cossack steppes represent the never-plowed (virgin) most typical meadow steppes in their best expression. These steppes avoided plowing due to the fact that since the 17th century they were in the communal use of archers and Cossacks and were intended only for haymaking and, partly, grazing. They have survived to this day because... in 1935 they became part of the Central Black Earth Reserve, created thanks to the efforts of Professor V.V. Alekhine, who made a huge contribution to the study of the steppes of the entire Central Black Earth Region and especially the Kursk region.

The conservation of steppe areas is not yet a complete solution to the problem of preserving their biodiversity. Meadow steppes retain their basic qualities only with the alienation of above-ground phytomass. The main role in this process in pre-agricultural times (before the start of agricultural development of the land by humans) was played by large herd ungulates that grazed in the steppes in significant quantities: wild horses - tarpans, saigas, aurochs. Large rodents such as gophers and marmots were found in abundance, as well as some herbivorous birds: bustards, bustards, etc. Steppe fires apparently played a significant role, destroying rags. Steppe vegetation in modern absolutely protected conditions, i.e. with complete non-interference of humans in the ongoing processes, it is gradually giving way to meadow, and the introduction of tree and shrub species is observed. The main reason for this is the intensive accumulation of rags and long-term non-decomposing litter, the so-called “steppe felt”. This is due to the absence of large phytophagous animals - consumers of green phytomass, which, dying annually, lies on the soil surface. Under the influence of litter, the temperature, water and light conditions of the upper soil horizons change. Under these new conditions, long-rhizome meadow species become more competitive, and steppe forbs gradually disappear from the grass stand; The structure of the vegetation cover changes, and species richness decreases. In order to avoid such undesirable changes, it is necessary to find a suitable replacement for the impact on the steppe grass that wild animals and steppe fires previously had. Such measures can be haymaking or grazing of domestic animals, or a combination of both: mowing and then grazing after the end. When choosing a conservation strategy, one must be guided by the goal of preserving maximum biodiversity. This goal is best achieved by combining different modes, when each of them makes its own contribution. Currently, the steppes of the reserve are maintained thanks to human activities: haymaking with different mowing times and different rotations and grazing of livestock with moderate load. The haymaking regime has options: annual mowing, hay rotation with a five-year rotation, when the area is mowed for four years in a row, and in the fifth year it “rests” to replenish the seed bank in the soil, hay rotation with a ten-year rotation and grazing after the end (nine years of mowing and rest on the tenth year). Immediately after the organization of the reserve, special experimental areas were also allocated - absolutely protected areas where there is no mowing or grazing. On the main area of ​​the flat steppe in the Central Chernozem Reserve, a hay rotation regime is used.

At the beginning of the 20th century, only mown variants of meadow steppes were represented on the plains of the Streletskaya and Cossack steppes. It was they who were proposed for conservation as having outstanding characteristics, which are now listed as the main “reference” for the northern steppes. Professor V.V. called it “Kursk botanical anomaly”. Alekhine these steppes.

The meadow steppes of the reserve are characterized by a rapid change of colors, outstanding species richness and richness of floristic composition, dense grass stand in which several species play a significant role, which is why these steppes are called polydominant. Many species of steppe plants grow here, which have become rare outside the reserve due to the destruction of their habitats and are included in the Red Book of the Kursk Region (2001). In the reserve, populations of these species are usually quite numerous and reliably preserved. The following rare steppe plants grow in the steppes of the Streletsky and Kozatsky areas: thin-leaved peony, pinnate feather grass, beautiful, narrow-leaved and pubescent-leaved, leafless iris, whitish hyacinth, Sumy cornflower, spring adonis, yellow flax, perennial, veined, purple kozelets, etc.

At the beginning of the last century, the steppes had a clearly expressed mixed-grass character, i.e. Dicotyledonous plants noticeably predominated in the grass stand, both in terms of their role in aspects and the number of species, as well as in terms of weight in the hay. Grasses also played a very large, but less noticeable role in the composition of the grass stand compared to forbs. Among the cereals, there was a predominance of species with more or less wide leaves, as well as the dominance of rhizomatous and loose-bush types (non-turf), which, combined with the abundance of dicotyledons, allowed V.V. Alekhine (1934, p. 28) called the northern steppes steppes of “colorful herbs with broad-leaved grasses.”

The northern steppes are characterized by a rapid change in physiognomic pictures (aspects) vegetation associated with the successive flowering of different plant species, which represents one of the distinctive properties of meadow-steppe phytocenoses. In the meadows north of the forest-steppe zone and in the true steppes south of it, the colorfulness of herbaceous communities decreases. The change of aspects in the Streletskaya steppe was first described in 1907 by V.V. Alekhine (1909). Later, this description was included in many popular scientific, methodological, and reference publications to characterize the “classical” picture of colorful changes occurring in the vegetation of meadow steppes. “Such a change of phases is undoubtedly the result of adaptation of steppe plants in the sense of their placement along various parts growing season: each species found a certain place for itself, not being greatly constrained by others and competing less with them” (Alekhine, 1934, p. 23).

After the snow melts, which usually happens in the steppe at the end of March, the brown background of last year's grass dominates. In mid-April the first ones begin to appear flowering species, the most noticeable of them is the open lumbago, or sleep-grass with large purple flowers. Almost simultaneously with it, spring adonis, or adonis, blooms. This species is more abundant and, in combination with Siberian coarse grain, forms a bright golden-yellow aspect of the steppe by the beginning of May. Yellow tones continue to dominate in mid-May, but now thanks to the flowering of other species: spring primrose and Russian broom. By this time, the young grass is already growing well, creating a fresh green background. Against this background, by the end of May the yellow flowers bright white and purple spots of blooming wood anemone, milky white china and leafless iris come. At the beginning of June, the lilac-blue aspect of meadow sage and fine-leaved peas is established, and early grasses also bloom: pinnate and pubescent feather grass, downy sheep. By mid-June the picture becomes very motley, because... blooms at this time maximum amount species of forbs and most grasses. These are species such as mountain and alpine clover, common cornflower, purple kozel, elecampane, blood-red geranium, common meadowsweet, coastal brome, etc. Later, by the end of June, the predominant color will be pink - this is sandy sainfoin blooming en masse; The bedstraw with its yellow, honey-smelling inflorescences also plays a significant role. The grass stand reaches its greatest height and density, and the time for haymaking is approaching. Beginning in July, the steppe already noticeably fades, most species fade, and the rising grasses obscure the still remaining colors. However, some species only now, in the midst of summer, carry their flowering shoots high, which are clearly visible against the background of the becoming straw-colored steppe: Litvinov's larkspur with blue flowers, black hellebore with dark cherry flowers. In unmown areas of the steppe, a straw-brownish background from dying shoots of cereals remains until late autumn. In mown areas, many species experience secondary flowering; in favorable years, some plants even manage to produce a second harvest of seeds. More and more new flowering species can be observed until mid-October. Secondary flowering, however, cannot compare with normal flowering in terms of richness of colors and number of flowering plants.

Changes in colorful pictures can vary from year to year: there are “feather grass” years, when from mid-May to mid-June the steppe resembles a swaying silver sea, and there are years when the feather grass aspect is not expressed at all. Most other species also do not form well-defined aspects annually. The change in aspects over the years is associated, on the one hand, with fluctuations in meteorological conditions, and on the other, with the periodicity of flowering inherent in many herbaceous plants. By highlighting certain phases or aspects, we greatly simplify the observed phenomena. In fact, each phase contains dozens of flowering, fading and flowering plants, which overall creates an extremely complex picture. The steppe changes its appearance not only from day to day, but it does not remain unchanged during the day, because... some species open their inflorescences in the morning, and with the onset of the hottest time they close until the next day. These are, for example, plants such as purple goat and eastern salsify. Other species open their flowers for only a few hours, and then their petals fall off (perennial and veined flax).

In absolutely protected areas, the development of plants in the spring is noticeably delayed due to the large amount of dead plant residues, which contribute to the accumulation of a larger supply of snow, which later melts. The vegetation is significantly inferior in variety of colors and richness of colors to the mown areas of the steppe. A number of species with bright flowers and large inflorescences avoid unmown areas; Here you can rarely find meadow sage, sandy sainfoin, purple goat, rouge and many other species that are common and abundant in the mown and grazed steppe.

Higher plants can be divided into biomorphs based on their characteristics general structure, frequency of fruiting and life expectancy: trees, shrubs, subshrubs and subshrubs, perennial herbs, annuals. In terms of the composition of the main biomorphs, meadow steppes are characterized by the predominance of perennial grasses capable of bearing fruit multiple times during their lifetime - these are polycarpics. Thus, among the main components of the grass stand in the Streletskaya steppe, their share is about 80%. Among them there are very few ephemeroids, i.e. plants that grow in a short time spring period bloom and bear fruit, after which their above-ground organs die, and bulbs or tubers remain in the soil: whitish hyacinth, Russian hazel grouse, red onion. Such rapid development of ephemeroids is an adaptation to have time to take advantage of the spring reserves of moisture in the soil before it begins to dry out; this life form is represented in the more southern variants of the steppes much more widely than in the meadows, where drought and heat are not so frequent. In second place are perennial and biennial herbs that bear fruit once in a lifetime and die off after that - these are monocarpics; they make up about 10% of the species composition of upland steppes. The role of ephemeral annuals is small both in the number of species and in abundance; found in small quantities are woolly krupka, northern breaker, and ferruginous gerbil and etc . Also, a small role is played by subshrubs and subshrubs, in which the lower parts of the stems do not die off in winter, these are plants such as Marshall thyme, some types of wormwood. In the plain steppe, the spread of trees and shrubs is inhibited by mowing. In the absence of mowing (pasture and absolutely reserved regimes), trees and shrubs are represented by a fairly large number of species, and some of them are very numerous (thorns, pears, apple trees, hawthorns, rose hips, etc.).

Steppes are open spaces where strong winds often blow. In such conditions, the distribution of fruits and seeds by wind is the most in a successful way conquest of new territories. In the forest-steppe zone, open areas of herbaceous vegetation are combined with tracts of forests and thickets of shrubs that prevent the long-distance spread of steppe plants, and among them there are not many species whose fruits are equipped with effective flying devices. Such plants are called anemochores; they primarily include feather grasses, the fruits of which (caryopsis) are equipped with long awns up to 40-50 cm. By the time of ripening, these awns become clearly feathery, due to which the fruits can be carried by the wind over distances of up to 100 m or more. A very interesting form of plants is tumbleweed; it is represented by a small number of species. In plants of this form, by the time the seeds ripen, the aerial part takes the shape of a ball, which breaks off at the root collar and rolls with the wind, spreading the seeds along the way. The most striking representative of this form in the Central Black Earth Reserve is the Tatar katran. The steppe slopes in the Bukreevy Barmy area, where it grows in significant abundance, during the period of its mass flowering are covered with large white balls and look as if a flock of sheep is grazing on them (Photo). Other representatives of this form are trinia multistem and common cutter. In many species, the flight properties of seeds or fruits are weakly expressed; the role of the wind is that it only shakes the stems of these plants and thus contributes to seeding. In this case, the seeds scatter from mother plant only tens of centimeters (Levina, 1956). The fruits of some species crack when ripening and drying, and the seeds are scattered around with force (fine-leaved peas, milky white peas, etc.); such plants are called autochores. The radius of expansion is also measured only in tens of centimeters or a few meters. The dispersal of seeds and fruits with the help of animals (zoochory) in the steppe apparently plays a subordinate role (Levina, 1965), which, however, increases with penetration into the steppe woody plants with fruits edible for animals; Myrmecochores are richer than others - plants whose fruits are taken away by ants (fragrant and rock violets, crested violet, nun).

Due to the high floristic richness, uniform distribution of many species and their great abundance, meadow steppes are characterized by extremely high species and specimen richness. Species or floristic saturation is the number of species in a certain area. V.V. Alekhine (1935) recorded up to 77 species of vascular plants per 1 m2 and up to 120 species per 100 m2 in the Streletskaya steppe. “Such richness of the Streletskaya steppe is absolutely exceptional and represents a kind of “vegetative Kursk anomaly” (Alekhine, 1934, p. 65). Later, censuses at meter sites carried out by V.N. Golubev (1962a) gave even more striking results. On the six surveyed meters, 87, 80, 61, 77, 80 and 84 species were recorded. Apparently, such a high species richness of vascular plants does not occur anywhere else in the temperate zone.

Trying to find an explanation for the “Kursk plant anomaly”, V.V. Alekhine wrote that “a connection may arise between the exceptional richness and antiquity of a given territory, because the Kursk steppes lie on the Central Russian Upland, which was not under the glacier” (1934, p. 65).

ON THE. Prozorovsky (1948), objecting to V.V. Alekhin, emphasized that the high species richness of the Kursk steppes is explained by a particularly favorable combination of climatic conditions in this zone, and not by the antiquity of the territory that did not experience glaciation, evidence of which is a gradual change in species richness in the eastern direction, which manifests itself both in the territory of the former and not been under a glacier.

G.I. Dokhman (1968, p. 97) believed that optimal hydrothermal and edaphic conditions of existence in the forest-steppe lead to maximum saturation of individuals, i.e. to high specimen saturation, and the high number of species per unit area “should be partly explained by the heterogeneity of the microenvironment, which provides the opportunity for the settlement of ecologically diverse plant species per unit area.”

A.M. Semenova-Tyan-Shanskaya (1966), who also noted that the species richness of meadow steppes and steppe meadows of the forest-steppe differs from all grassy watershed communities of the Russian Plain, saw the reasons for this phenomenon in the variable nature of moisture, which explains the existence of species of different ecology in small areas : drought-resistant steppe, true meadow and forest-meadow mesophytes, as well as meadow-steppe plants in the broad sense that are most characteristic of the forest-steppe.

A.M. Krasnitsky (1983) explained the reasons for the signs of the botanical anomaly of the Streletskaya steppe by the regime of anthropogenic protection - mowing. However, mowing alone would not lead to such indicators in any natural conditions. The species richness of the Kursk meadow steppes, unique for the Holarctic, can apparently only be explained by a combination of the above-mentioned reasons: natural-historical, physical-geographical and anthropogenic.

Mowing weakens the competitive power of dominant species, because a significant part of the assimilating organs is alienated, this deprives them of their dominant position in intercepting light. After mowing, new ones are formed ecological niches, as a result of which such big number species of vascular plants, while the individual role of each species, even the dominant one, is not very high, i.e. the degree of dominance in mown meadow steppes is low, and most grass stands are characterized by polydominance; The projective coverage of dominants, as a rule, does not exceed 10-15, and more often it is at the level of 5-8%.

The richness of the floristic composition and high species richness of the upland meadow steppe entail a complex vertical structure. The herbaceous layer is characterized by high density; the soil uncovered by plants can only be seen by the emissions of mole rats or other smaller rodents. The projective cover of plants can reach 90-100%, on average no less than 70-80%. The herbage during the period of its maximum development (June - early August) is usually divided into several sublayers (different researchers have identified from 4 to 6 sublayers of the herbage). The layering changes during the growing season: it becomes more complex (the number of sublayers increases) from early spring by summer and simplifies by autumn. The highest sublayer, composed of coastal brome, tall ryegrass, rough cornflower, gilly grass, mealy mullein and other plants in a wet year exceeds 100 cm. The ground layer is typical, consisting mainly of one type of green moss - Tuidium spruceous, which can cover more than half of the surface soil.

The layering of the grass stand is accompanied by underground layering. Based on the depth of root penetration, all plants can be divided into three groups: shallow-rooted (up to 100 cm), medium-rooted (up to 200 cm) and deep-rooted (over 200 cm). It must be said that not all researchers share this point of view. There is also a directly opposite view: in meadow-steppe communities there is no real tiered structure in the underground parts of the communities.

The uppermost layer of soil, most densely intertwined with roots, forms a dense turf that protects the soil well from erosion. The total size of the root layer reaches a record depth of 6 m, and possibly more (Golubev, 1962b). The exceptionally high depth of penetration of the roots of meadow steppe plants is determined by the properties of the soil: good aeration and porosity, sufficient moisture in the lower horizons, starting from 1.8 m, deep groundwater, absence of salinity, etc.

The total underground phytomass in meadow steppes exceeds the above-ground phytomass by 2-3 times, the bulk of the roots and rhizomes are located in a soil layer 0-50 cm deep. The yield of above-ground phytomass is subject to significant year-to-year fluctuations. In the total above-ground phytomass, green and dead parts (rags and litter) are distinguished. According to the results of long-term studies in the Streletskaya steppe, the green part of the above-ground phytomass ranged from 16 to 62 c/ha under hay rotation regime, averaging 32 c/ha, and the total above-ground phytomass - from 21 to 94 c/ha, on average - 49 c/ha. ha. Under an absolutely reserved regime, the green part of the above-ground phytomass ranged from 23 to 55 c/ha, averaging 37 c/ha, and the total above-ground phytomass - from 50 to 135 c/ha, on average 91 c/ha (Sobakinskikh, 2000) . Thus, under an absolutely protected regime, the total above-ground phytomass almost doubles, but this increase is mainly due to the dead part.

Over the past century, some changes have occurred in the vegetation of the Streletskaya steppe. A decrease in the participation in the structure of meadow steppe grass stands of a group of dicotyledonous plants, which determined the high colorfulness of meadow steppes at the beginning of the century, was noted. The abundance of broad-leaved grasses has increased significantly, among them the coastal brome still plays the largest role, but relatively recently tall ryegrass has penetrated into the upland steppes from meadows and forest edges and has gained a strong position; its generative shoots can reach a height of 1.3-1.5 m in wet summers. Poa angustifolia, downy sheep's grass, Syreyshchikov's bentgrass, hedgehog's grass, steppe and meadow timothy grass are quite abundant.

Of the large-grass grasses, the most characteristic and abundant is feathery feather grass; angustifolia and pubescent feather grass are less common; of the small-turf species - fescue, thin-legged comb.

In the first half of the last century, a special characteristic feature The meadow steppes were characterized by a high participation of low sedge, tufts of which were found on almost every square meter. V.V. Alekhine considered it an indispensable member of the northern steppes, even writing about meadow steppes with low sedge undergrowth. In the second half of the 20th century, its abundance and occurrence significantly decreased in the upland steppes.

The abundance of whitish hyacinth also decreases. If earlier it was mentioned that this species took part in the formation of aspects together with adonis and primrose, now it can be difficult to count several dozen flowering specimens per hectare.

All observers until the end of the 1980s noted the forget-me-not aspect of Popov. S.S. Levitsky (1968) wrote that the massive flowering of forget-me-nots sometimes gives some areas of the steppe such a bright blue color that from a distance these places can be mistaken for water spaces reflecting the azure sky. To date, this species has lost its role in the creation of the aspect and is now recorded in the steppe only in small numbers.

While some species are decreasing in abundance, others are increasing their abundance. We have already mentioned above the mass introduction of tall ryegrass, which in the first half of the twentieth century was completely uncharacteristic of grass stands of upland steppes. The second half of the 20th century in the Streletskaya steppe is characterized by the appearance in places of the Siberian grain aspect; before that it was known that it was rare in the steppe, only a few clumps were noted. Rough cornflower has also become more widespread.

The horizontal structure of the vegetation cover is complex; identifying individual communities (phytocenoses) in it presents serious difficulties, since herbaceous vegetation is characterized by a continuum, i.e. the smooth transition of one community to another, which is explained by the rather homogeneous environmental conditions on the flats, the richness of the species composition and the predominance of species with a wide ecological amplitude. However, on the other hand, meadow steppes are characterized by complexity, due to a well-developed microrelief and the complexity of the soil cover. On microelevations of various shapes, in a circumference of up to 1 m or more, with a height of up to 20-40 cm, as a rule, groups develop with a large participation of dry-loving (xerophilic) plants. In small, gentle, rounded depressions called saucers, more moisture-loving (mesophilic) species are more abundantly represented. The heterogeneity of vegetation cover is more noticeable under absolutely protected conditions. The mown steppe is characterized by a uniformly diffuse distribution of most plant species, which leads to a monotonous pattern in the vegetation cover, because mowing is a powerful leveling factor.

The classification of plant communities of meadow steppes is also associated with problems due to the rich species composition, polydominance, and the difficulty of distinguishing between meadow steppes and steppe meadows. Until recently, the ecological-phytocenotic approach to classification prevailed, mainly based on taking into account dominants. This led to the identification of a large number of small and inexpressive plant associations, often differing only in the ratio of abundances of the same dominant species, which can vary greatly not only from place to place, but also within the same community from year to year and even within one growing season.

Recently, the floristic approach has become increasingly used. Its use for classifying the vegetation of the Streletskaya steppe made it possible to classify all communities of the upland mowing part as one association (Averinova, 2005).

We can say that now the vegetation of the upland meadow steppes of the reserve is represented mainly by forb-broad-leaved grass communities with a significant participation of dense turf grasses and legumes. Among the forbs, the following species are especially abundant: spring adonis, spring primrose, multifloral buttercup, green strawberry, meadowsweet, meadow sage, Kaufmann's grass, rough cornflower, true bedstraw, common cutter, mountain gourd, etc. Of the legumes, the most noticeable role is played by: clover mountain and alpine, thin-leaved peas, sandy sainfoin, etc.

Meadow-steppe vegetation is represented not only on the plains of the Streletskaya and Cossack steppes, but also on the slopes of lairs (gulls) of predominantly southern exposure, where it often has a more steppe character than the plain steppe itself due to the greater aridity of such habitats. On the southern slopes one can find plant groups that include species that are not found in the upland conditions of these areas and are more xerophilic in nature. The vegetation no longer forms a continuous cover; in places the subsoil is exposed. Mainly associated with the southern slopes are drooping sage and feather grass, as well as crescent grass, Russian Echinops, white broomrape, Siberian istod, chamomile aster, tall and some other plants. It is on the southern slopes that the presence of thickets of steppe shrubs, the so-called dereznyaks, is typical, consisting mainly of steppe cherry, low almond, called bobovnik, blackthorn, less often meadowsweet (spirea) Litvinov, and some types of rose hips. At the beginning of May, when the sloe and almond trees bloom at the same time, some slopes become very picturesque thanks to the combination of white, pink and green flowers. The wolfberry itself (caragana shrub), from which the name of these thickets comes, is currently found on the territory of the reserve only in the Barkalovka section. On the northern slopes, phytocenoses contain many mesophilic species and the vegetation is close to meadow. Outside the Central Chernozem Reserve, remnants of steppe vegetation are still preserved precisely on the slopes of ravines and along the steep banks of rivers, i.e. in places inconvenient for plowing.

Meadow-steppe vegetation can be restored in place of arable land if there are favorable conditions for this: the proximity of virgin steppes, which act as sources of seeds, suitable terrain and soil, and the use of haymaking. There are positive examples of such restoration in several areas of the reserve, but this is a slow process. If a steppe ecosystem can be destroyed in a matter of hours by plowing, it will take decades for nature to recover. Thus, on the Kozatsky site there is an old 70-year-old deposit “Far Field” with an area of ​​290 hectares. On its mown areas, the vegetation is currently represented by meadow-steppe communities, which in their properties and appearance are close to virgin steppes. However, even after such a long period of time, experts note some differences between these restored communities and those that were not subject to destructive anthropogenic impacts. In that part of the “Far Field” deposit, where the regime of absolute conservation was practiced, areas of steppe vegetation with well-developed feather grass communities have also been restored, but a significant introduction of shrubs and trees, meadow and even forest species has already been noted. At the Bukreevy Barmy site, a 40-year-old deposit with an area of ​​20 hectares is an example of the relatively rapid and successful restoration of feather grass steppes on southern-facing slopes with Cretaceous deposits close to the surface. In such drier conditions, the total phytomass decreases, a less significant layer of litter is formed, and the feather feather grass gains an advantage in comparison with the more mesophilic broad-leaved grasses that predominate on the flats (coastal and awnless brome, tall ryegrass, meadow timothy, etc.).

Where there are no suitable conditions for the natural restoration of the steppe, steppe vegetation can be recreated using specially developed methods. The Zorinsky site became part of the Central Chernobyl Plant in 1998; More than 200 hectares of it were occupied by former arable land, which by the time the reserve was organized was gradually overgrown with weeds and meadow vegetation, and part of the land was still used for arable land. The possibilities of restoring steppe vegetation here naturally were very limited, because Very few areas were preserved in which steppe species grew, and the range of these species was rather poor.

To create more favorable conditions for the restoration of steppe vegetation on fallow lands and arable land, in 1999, the reserve staff conducted an experiment on 6 hectares for the restoration of steppes using a grass-seed mixture from the virgin Streletskaya steppe. This mixture was prepared by mowing different areas at several times, so that seeds of species that ripen at different times could get into it, and then applied to the experimental area. This recovery method was developed by D.S. Dzybov and received the name of the agrosteppe method.

Over the years since the experiment, specimens of more than 80 species of plants have been discovered, about which there is reason to say that they appeared from the introduced material, including 46 species noted on the experimental area that were not previously part of the local flora, of which 23 species - these are rare steppe plants from the Red Book list of the Kursk region (2001). Species such as coastal brome, slender-legged comb, perennial flax, and sandy sainfoin have become quite widespread in the experimental area, blooming and bearing fruit well. The first specimens of feather grass began to enter the generative phase in 2002; to date, there are hundreds of fruiting turfs of feather grass and feather grass.

Overall, we assess the results of this experiment as modest, because It was not possible to achieve close similarity of the reconstructed communities with those represented in the Streletskaya steppe. If in the future steppe species become established in the plant communities of the Zorinsky site, become their significant components and spread far beyond the experimental area, then the experiment will be justified.

In 2010, on the Streletsky site, on an area of ​​7 hectares of a former potato field, a new experiment was launched to recreate meadow-steppe vegetation: wide-row sowing of several species of feathery feather grass was carried out on half of the field; In the future, it is planned to sow the row spacing with seeds of steppe forbs. This method was developed by V.I. Danilov and is used to restore the historical appearance of the Kulikovo Field landscape in the Tula region. In the second half, the agrosteppe method will be applied again.

The text was prepared by Ph.D. T.D. Filatova