Vegetation of the lawns of the Ufa city (Republic of Bashkortostan)
Authors: Anishchenko I. E. , Golovanov Ya. M. , Zhigunov O. Yu. , Abramova L. M. 
Published: December 2019

The article presents the results of the classification of lawn vegetation of the Ufa city. Lawns are the most common element of urban landscapes which, as a rule, occupy 60–80 % of the total green area of cities. A lawn is a community of herbs growing on a uniform area and forming a turf cover for which mixture of seeds of perennial cereals is selected on the basis of local climatic conditions and soil, as well as having in mind the purpose of the lawn.

The research was conducted in 2018 in the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan — the Ufa city with a population of 1100 thousand people. The Ufa city (54°44′00″ N and 55°58′00″ E) is situated on the banks of the Belaya River, at the Ufa and Dema ri­vers confluence, on the Pribelskaya hilly plain, 100 km west of the Southern Ural ranges within the northern part of forest-steppe zone. The city area is 707.93 km², the length from north to south is 53.5 km, that from west to east is 29.8 km in the widest part.

The climate is temperate continental. The mean annual air temperature is 3.8 °С; the amount of precipitation is 589 mm. Negative mean monthly temperatures are typical for five months a year; some frosts are possible all over the year except July and August. The mean January temperature is –14.6 °С, with absolute minimum –54 °С; this of July is 19 °С, with absolute maximum 40 °С. The frost-free period averages 137 days.

100 relevés (authors Anishchenko I. E. and Zhigunov O. Yu.) of various types of lawns were included in the base of synanthropic vegetation of settlements of the Republic of Bashkortostan by using the ­TURBOVEG program (Hennekens, 1995). The size of the sample plot is 4 m2. The species abundance was evaluated on the Braun-Blanquetscale (Mirkin, Naumova, 1998). Names of species are given according to S. K. Cherepanov (1995), and P. F. Mayevskiy (2014). The classification was carried out using the Braun-Blanquetmethod (Braun-Blanquet, 1964; Westhoff, Maarel, 1978) by using the JUICE program (Tichý, 2002); the names of the new units are in accordance with the “Code of phytosociological nomenclature” (Weber et al., 2005).

All syntaxa were compared with the units previously described in the Republic of Bashkortostan and other regions (Ishbirdin et al., 1989; Vegetace..., 2007; and others). Synoptic tables are given in reduced form with species of constancy III and higher in one or several syntaxa. The names of the higher syntaxa are given after “Vegetation of Europe...” (Mucina et al., 2016).

The Prodromus includes four associations related to class Molinio-Arrhenatheretea and alliance Cynosurion cristati: Leontodonto–Poetum pratensis Anishchenko et Ishbirdina in Ishbirdina et al. 1989 ex Anishchenko et al. ass. nov. hoc loco (with two subassociations and four facies, see below); Poo pratensis–Plantaginetum majoris Ishbirdin et al. 1988, Inulo britannicae–Trifolietum repentis Solomeshch in Ishbirdin et al. 1988, Lolietum perennis Gams 1927. Associations and subassociations reflect disturbance of lawns due to trampling expressed in the larger number of synanthropic species and partly in dominance of the cereals that enter into the lawn grass mixtures. Over the past 30 years, the vegetation of lawns in the Ufa city has drastically changed due to variations in the composition of sown grass mixtures.

The ass. Leontodonto–Poetum pratensis is the main lawn association of the Ufa city. It combines coenoses of various types of lawns — from seed to roll ones. Dominants are species of the alliance Cynosurion cristati (Amoria repens, Leontodon autumnalis, Medicago lupulina, Taraxacum officinale, etc.) and the class Polygono–Poetea annuae (Lepidotheca suaveolens, Plantago major, Poa annua, etc.), resistant to the mowing and trampling. The main factor in community differentiation is anthropogenic disturbance, according to which 2 subassociations are distinguished: L.–P. p. typicum subass. nov. hoc loco (Tables 4, 5; nomenclature type: (holotypus hoc loco) — Table 4, relevé 15: Republic of Bashkortostan, Ufa, Monument Druzhby, 16.07.2018, 54.71176 N, 55.96351 E. Authors — I. E. Anishchenko, O. Yu. Zhigunov) — less disturbed lawns and L.–P. p. cichorietosum intybi subass. nov. hoc loco (Tables 6, 7; nomenclature type: (holotypus hoc loco) — Table 6, relevé 14: Republic of Bashkortostan, Ufa, Komsomolskaya str., 108 а, 17.07.2018, 54.75213 N, 56.00659 E. Authors — I. E. Anishchenko, O. Yu. Zhigunov) — more disturbed ones with high amount of the synanthropic species. The type of grass mixture sown also influences on the coenoflora composition. Four facies are distinguished within both subassociations according to variations in abundance of cereals: typica (prevalence of Poa pratensis) (Fig. 1) in subass. typicum; Festuca rubra (Fig. 2) in both ones (disturbed and non disturbed lawns); Festuca pratensis in subass. cichorietosum intybi. The comparative analysis given in Table 1 showed the stabi­lity of the floristic composition of communities, lawns formed by grass mixes of various types: both seed and roll. The differences are either in the degree of weediness of the lawns, or in the nature of the dominance of individual cereals.

A comparison of the associations of the union Cynosurion cristati described on the territory of the Republic of Bashkortostan (Table 2) showed that in urban conditions the constancy and abundance of meadow species (Lathyrus pratensis, Phleum pratense, Prunella vulgaris, Ranunculus polyanthemos, Stellaria gra­minea, etc.) are significantly reduced. while these values for synanthropic species (Capsella bursa-pastoris, Convolvulus arvensis, Tripleurospermum perforatum, etc.) are naturally increasing. This fact suggests specificity of communities of ass. Leontodonto–Poetum pratensis in the system of the union Cynosurion cristati.

The associations Inulo britannicae–Trifolietum repentis (Table 10) and Poo pratensis–Plantaginetum majoris (Table 9, Fig. 3) unites old degraded lawns under trampling and are close to similar communities of ruderal vegetation.

The ass. Lolietum perennis (Table 11, Fig. 4) is an example of the “introduction” of West European lawns, due to the use of grass mixtures with Lolium perenne. The vegetation of rolled and seeded lawns is not significantly different. In comparison with the syntaxa from different regions of Russia and Europe the lawn communities of the Southern Urals are more clogged and have more thermophilic species such as Carduus acanthoides, Cichorium intybus, Tripleurospermum perforatum, etc. Changes in their composition since 1980s are associated with the use of modern grass mixtures with other grasses.