SUCCULENT PLANT DIVERSITY IN TURKEY I. STONECROPS (CRASSULACEAE)

Turkey is one of the most important areas in Eurasia for its high number of Sedum species. Such diversity of sedums is a result of extreme altitudinal differences providing a wealth of habitats such as rocky slopes in deep, disjunct valleys. This, coupled with a variety of rock types, means that unique niches for plant evolution are many. Sedum diversity in Turkey was evaluated with regard to geographical distribution and associated landscape characteristics. Endemic and rare, non-endemic Sedum species were noted. As a result of this review study, we accept 44 stonecrop taxa including 11 endemics, 1 rare non-endemic, 5 subspecies and 4 varieties, which are mapped according to their geographical distributions using Davis's square system. Because Hylotelephium (1 sp), Phedimus (4 spp) and Prometheum (2 spp) have been not accepted by the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society, UK), who still consider them to be Sedum, we use the latter throughout.