Eco-Biological Characteristics of Medicinal Plants in the Maintained Reserve “Balabana” (The River Tundzha Hilly Valley)

353 Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 19 (No 2) 2013, 353-360 Agricultural Academy ECO-BIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MEDICINAL PLANTS IN THE MAINTAINED RESERVE “Balabana” (thE RIVER TUNDZHA HILLY VALLEY) S. GEORGIEV1, A. TASHEV2 and K. KOEV1 1 University of Plovdiv, Faculty of Biology, BG - 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria 2 Forestry University, Faculty of Forestry, BG - 1756 Sofia, Bulgaria Abstract GEORGIEV, S., A. TasHEV and K. KOEV, 2013. Eco-biological characteristics of medicinal plants in the maintained reserve “Balabana” (the river Tundzha hilly valley). Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 19: 353-360 In the present work we investigated medicinal plants of the flora of the maintained reserve “Balabana”, located in the middle reaches of the river Tundhza, near Elhovo (Tundzha hilly valley). A characteristic was made of the systematic structure of the eco-biological features of these plants. The species were grouped in biological groups, life forms, floral elements and flowering period. Medicinal plants were also classified according to their relation to water, light, heat and substrate. Key words: the maintained reserve “Balabana”, flora, medicinal plants, eco-biological characteristics Introduction The subject of this study is to make characteristics of medicinal plants in the maintained reserve (MR) “Bala- The purpose of this study is based on our fieldwork bana” (77.0 ha), located in the middle reaches of the river and analysis of literature data to be made a list and eco-bi- Tundzha, near the town of Elhovo. The reserve was pro- ological characteristics of medicinal plants set within the claimed with Order No 2676/10.03.1961, of GDF, with maintained reserve “Balabana” (Tundzha hilly valley). the purpose to restore and preserve the natural habitats N. Stoyanov in his article “The Forest Longoz at the and places of nesting of one of the few colonies of the River Kamchia and longozes as plant formation” (Stoy- small white egret and the night heron, the glossy ibis and anov, 1928), where he first mentioned the riparian for- the common pheasant. In 1984, it was declared a buffer ests that are located in the valley of the Tundzha, not zone of the reserve with an area of 60 ha. In 1999, the far from Elhovo, the medicinal flora of which is subject Protected Areas Act, by Order No RD-376/15.10.1999 of of this study. A more detailed study of the flora of MR MEW, it was categorized as a “maintained reserve”. “Balabana” was done in developing its management plan The protected area is located in Elhovo field, Tund- (Berberova, 2001). zha hilly valley, between 42°08’38.99” and 42°09’16.34” The article by Pavlov and Dimitrov (2002) concerned N, and 26°32’5.12” and 26°32’50.72” E. According to the the syntaxonomic diversity in the reserve without study- phytogeographic subdivision in Bulgaria, the reserve is ing its floristic composition. Our findings complement located within the Sakar mountain region, Sakar-Der- and correct the results of Berberova’s study (2001), as venski phytogeographic region (Bondev, 1991). we make characteristics of the genetic resources of me- The area of MR “Balabana” is within the European dicinal plants in MR “Balabana”. continental climatic subregion of the middle-eastern re- E-mail: [email protected] ; [email protected]; [email protected] 354 S. Georgiev, A. Tashev and K. Koev gion of Bulgaria (Gulubov, 1982), and according to Tish- Bulgaria (Jordanov, chief editor 1963-1979; Velchev chief kov (1982) in continental Mediterranean climatic region, editor 1982-1989), Flora of Bulgaria (Kozhuharov, 1995), south Bulgarian subregion. This means that the flora in Flora of Bulgaria (Stoyanov, etc. 1966-1967), Qualifier of this area is subjected to a Mediterranean influence. trees and shrubs in Bulgaria (Gramatikov, 1992), Qualifier On data of the meteorological station in the municipal- of Plants in Bulgaria (Delipavlov et al., 2011). ity, it was made characteristics of the main components of The processing of herbarium materials and charac- the climate in the research area. The average annual tem- teristics of flora were carried out by standard methods perature for the last 10 years (Table 1) is relatively high (Stanev, 1976; Vassilev and Andreev, 1992; Gusev et al., and varies between 11.5°C and 13.3°C (average 12.5°C). 2004). Characteristic of medicinal plants was done ac- For comparison, the average annual temperature for most cording to biological types and life forms of Raunki- of the country is 11-12°C (Gulubov, 1982). The amount of aer (1934). Floral elements were characterized by the annual rainfall varies in 400.5-1018.6 mm (average 629.1 classification of B. Stefanov (1943) and the adapted to mm). Their seasonal distribution is relatively constant with the flora of Bulgaria classification of Walter (Asyov and autumn-winter maximum (110-160 mm) and spring-sum- Petrova, 2006). Medicinal plants are divided into eco- mer minimum (100-140 mm). Precipitation is mostly rain. logical groups in terms of the most important ecological Snow cover does not last long and due to this fact, the soils factors – water temperature, light and substrate. Plants freeze at some times in winter. are also divided into groups of their flowering time. The diversity of medicinal plants in MR “Balabana” was studied by doing systematic collection of materials Results during the growing seasons of 2010-2011. Frequency of Because of floristic studies in 2010-2011 on the ter- collecting was consistent with the climatic conditions in ritory of MR “Balabana”, 196 species of higher plants the area and the resulting phyto- rhythmic. The earliest from 139 genera and 54 families were found. Only two collecting started from the beginning of February 2010 and species of these are representatives of higher spore the latest – by the end of September 2011. This allowed the plants and belong to the division Equisetophyta – Equi- most complete taxonomic diversity of flora in the reserve setum arvense L. and E. palustre L., and the remaining and its seasonal dynamics to be covered. The identifica- 194 species belong to the division Magnoliophyta (Ap- tion of species was done using the Flora of the Republic of pendix 1). 45 species of these belong to Class Liliop- sida, distributed in 29 genera and 11 families and 149 Table 1 species are related to class Magnoliopsida, distributed Annual rainfall and average annual temperature in 109 genera and 42 families. in the area of MR “Balabana” based on data In Appendix 2 there is a list of vascular plants, which from meteorological station Elhovo for are referred to the flora of the reserve management plan the period 2002-2011 (Berberova, 2001), but they were not found during the field Rainfall, Average annual Year mm/m2 temperature, °C studies in 2010-2011. Appendix 3 shows a list of species 2002 656.9 12.5 that were found in the reserve during this study but they 2003 400.5 12 were not listed in the management plan (Berberova, 2001). 2004 824.2 12.3 The differences, found in the species composition of the 2005 1018.6 12 flora of MR “Balabana” in the period up to 2001 (Ber- 2006 414. 12.1 berova, 2001) and as a result of this study from 2010-2011, 2007 568.1 13.3 may be due to the observed climatic drying because of the 2008 389 12.9 reduced precipitation and lowering the water level of the 2009 728.3 12.9 river Tundzha in the last decade, and as a result of increase 2010 733.7 13.1 in average annual temperatures for the same period. 2011 556.8 11.5 Basing on the literature analysis of publications on Average 629.1 12.5 medicinal plants of the flora of Bulgaria (Appendix № 1 Eco-Biological Characteristics of Medicinal Plants in the Reserve “Balabana” (River Tundzha Valley) 355 to Medicinal Plants Act, 2000, 2006; Nikolov, 2007; Ta- sitional life forms – among them the most – 15 species shev and Tsavkov, 2008; Landzhev, 2010; Delipavlov et al., (11.6%) are those, which can be therophytes or hemicryp- 2011) it was found that in MR “Balabana” there are 129 tophytes (Th-H), depending on the habitat conditions. medicinal plant species from 107 genera and 47 families, The distribution of medicinal plants in phytogeo- representing 65.8% of the species, 76.9% of the genera and graphic centers according to the classification of Stefanov 87.0% of the families in the protected area. These plants (1943) shows that the greatest part – 31.8% are thermo- represent 17.3% of the species included in Appendix № phytes from the South Mainland center, followed by the 1 of the Law on Medicinal Plants (2000, 2006). The most thermophytes from the Northern Continental Center – species-rich families in the reserve are: Poaceae with 22 24.0%; mesotherms of Silvo-boreal center – 20.1%, ther- species, only 3 of which are healing, Asteraceae and Fa- mophytes and mesotherms of the mountainous center – baceae are with 16 species, respectfully 12 and 10 species 19.3%, thermophytes from Mediterranean Centre – 3.8% of which are healing, Rosaceae – 12 species – all of which and finally the plants from other phytogeographic centers healing, Lamiaceae – 11 species, 10 of which have healing – 0.8% (Figure 1). properties, etc. The genera with the most species – each with 4 are Poa, Ranunculus and Vicia, and only the latter Table 3 have one representative among the medicinal plants. Biological spectrum of medicinal plants from The distribution of taxa in biological types shows that MR “Balabana” Biological form by Number of % MР in MR the most significant presence among the medicinal plants Raunkiaer (1934) taxa “Balabana” have the perennial herbaceous species – 74 or 57.3% of all Phanerophytes (Ph) 26 20.1 plants, the annual plants follow them – 12 (9.3%), trees – 11 Chamephytes (Ch) 2 1.6 (8.5%) and shrubs with 10 species (7.8%).

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