Contribution to the knowledge of the wetland flora and vegetation of Amvrakikos Gulf, W Greece

Sarika, M., Dimopoulos, P. & Yannitsaros, A.: Contribution to the knowledge of the wetland flora and vegetation of Amvrakikos Gulf, W Greece. — Willdenowia 35: 69–85. — ISSN 0511-9618; © 2005 BGBM Berlin-Dahlem. doi:10.3372/wi.35.35105 (available via http://dx.doi.org/) The wetland complex of Amvrakikos Gulf is the largest and most diverse in Greece and one of the 11 Internationally Important Wetlands catalogued in the country, but its flora and vegetation has been only insuffiently known to date. The present study revealed that the wetland flora of Amvrakikos comprises 182 vascular plant taxa, of which 158 are reported for the first time. Five taxa (Callitriche truncata subsp. truncata, Cyperus michelianus subsp. pygmaeus, Elymus hispidus subsp. graecus, Salvinia natans, Typha laxmanii) are new records also for Epirus and one (Glinus lotoides) is a new record for both western Sterea Ellas and Epirus. The distribution of nine taxa (Callitriche truncata subsp. truncata, Cotula coronopifolia, Cyperus michelianus subsp. pygmaeus, Eleocharis mitracarpa, Elymus hispidus subsp. graecus, Glinus lotoides, Rumex kerneri, Salvinia natans, Typha laxmanii) of special chorological interest is considered more closely. The vegetation complex of Amvrakikos wetland consists of thirty-six plant communities of six habitat groups: communities of saline soils, communities of subsaline soils, freshwater communities (marshes, reed swamps), communities of soils periodically inundated by freshwater, communities without preference for a particular habitat type and riparian forests.