Flora of the ancient settlements within Lower Dnipro – natural heritage with cultural background

This dataset is the long-term outcome of PhD study conducted by Polina Dayneko throughout Kherson State University (KSU), as well the international Ukrainian-Polish field expedition (2017) led by professor Ivan Moysiyenko (KSU). In total, 18 ancient settlements within Lower Dnipro (Kherson and Mykolaiv region) were studied. The study of each site was conducted at least 3 times according to the season: spring, summer and autumn during 2015-2020 period. The sites of ancient settlements (also known as earthworks) are characterized by a rather high level of floristic richness of vascular plants despite their relatively small size. The total list of vascular plants of 18 ancient settlements of the Lower Dnipro includes 525 species of vascular plants belonging to 281 genera, 74 families, 3 classes and 2 divisions. The total number occurrences is 3,210. The floristic richness in some settlements varies from 124 to 290 species (the average number is 178 species). Moreover, within studied ancient settlements, we recorded a significant number of native (396 species, 75.6%), steppe (240 species, 45.8%) and non-synanthropic plants (224 species, 42.7%), which indicated a good state of preservation of the steppe on these objects. Studies have also shown the high sozological value of the studied settlements. Thus, a rare element of the settlements of the Lower Dnipro is represented by 33 species (6.3% of the total number of species) is included in the Bern Convention (1 species), Red Book of Ukraine (10 species), Red Lists of Kherson (21 species) and Mykolaiv (5 species) regions. This structure of the flora indicates that the ancient settlements perform well the function of preserving the natural steppe diversity and can potentially be considered as nature conservation sites.