SOME MONOCOTYLE ENDEMIC PLANTS WITH THE POTENTIAL OF BEING AN ORNAMENTAL PLANT IN MERSIN

Abstract

Humanity has used plants for aesthetic purposes for centuries. Plants nowadays use cities for more livable habitats and similar purposes to satisfy the longing for nature of people who move away from nature due to increasing urbanization. So that plants attract attention as a commercial field plays a crucial role in economic development for many countries today. Our country, which is one of the richest geographies in terms of biodiversity globally, shows a total of 11466 plant taxa, 3800 of which are endemic. While the total number of plant species in all of Europe is around 12.000, in our country there are approximately 10.000 species. When the species and subspecies identified in recent years are added, around 12,000 taxa find natural habitats in our country. Mersin province is one of the important endemism centers of our country, with approximately 400 endemic species (endemism rate is approximately 23%). It is seen that the areas where geophytes spread intensively in the world are regions where the Mediterranean climate prevails, which is humid and warm in winters and dry and hot in summers. The Mediterranean Basin, where our country is located, is the second richest geophyte region in the world. Mersin province is one of the provinces located in the Mediterranean Basin. Within the scope of this study, it is to determine the usability of endemic plant species that are naturally distributed in Mersin province as ornamental plants and to ensure that they gain economic value in the ornamental plant market. For this purpose, in our study, some monocotyledon taxa that have an ornamental plant potential from endemic plant taxa in Mersin have been determined, and photographs of these taxa are presented. The recommended taxa are geophyte taxa, and the fact that they only spread in our country (some only in Mersin) is of great importance in bringing these species into the landscape as ornamental plants. A total of 20 endemic taxa belonging to 5 different monocotyledon families identified in Mersin were determined. The endangered extinction of some of these taxa proposed as ornamental plants is also of great importance in ensuring their generation by bringing them into the landscape with various production techniques.