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

Abstract

Flora of Turkey, which constitutes an important part of Turkey of biological diversity, ranks first among European countries. Flora of Turkey first among other countries in the world in terms of its endemism rate. Mersin province, which is located in the Mediterranean region, which is the richest region of Turkey concerning endemism, forms an important part of our country's flora and the Mediterranean in terms of floristic. The endemism rate of flora of Mersin province is approximately 23%. Today, when urbanization is increasing and the concentration in rural areas decreases, natural ingredients and plants are increasingly included in city life. For this reason, big cities and cities such as Mersin are trying to be integrated with nature or to include nature and its ingredients in city life. Unfortunately, most of the plants that are tried to be included in city life are not natural plants of our country but are mainly exotic dicotyledon ornamental plants of foreign origin. Some of these species are invasive and appear to threaten the natural ecosystem. For this reason, it is important in many aspects to include the species with natural distribution in Mersin to the landscape areas and urban ecosystem. Therefore, the natural ecosystem will not be damaged therewithal aesthetically valuable species can be considered ornamental plants. In this context, the spread of the species suggested in our study only in our country (and some only in Mersin) is of great importance in bringing these species to the ornamental plant sector. In this study, some of the dicotyl endemic plant taxa with ornamental plant potential were identified, and photographs of these taxa were presented. Thirty different endemic taxa belonging to 13 different dicotyl families identified are listed. It is seen that the endemic taxa we propose are not very aesthetically different from the taxa currently used in the landscape, and even some taxa are more striking than some exotic taxa evaluated in the landscape. In addition, the proposed list includes taxa with medical importance in the landscape and endemic taxa that can also be considered as honey plants, as well as ground cover and hedge plants. We anticipate that these taxa, which are the elements of the natural vegetation of Mersin, can be transferred to urban areas by taking inspiration from nature and prevent biological, ecological, economic, and even pathological problems caused by a significant part of exotic species.