Many years ago, large areas of land were occupied by the endless steppe or wild field. However, the extraordinarily fertile lands characteristic of the steppe zone have become main reason its plowing and now this natural area in its original form can only be found on the territory of nature reserves and national parks. Let's take a closer look at the plants and animals of the steppe.

general characteristics

The steppe zone is dominated by a flat relief with a complete absence of trees. A powerful sod layer formed as a result of a strong interlacing of the rhizomes of steppe plants, lack of moisture and long dry periods are unfavorable factors for the germination of tree seeds.

For this reason, the flora of the steppes is represented by all kinds of herbs, bulbous plants and rare shrubs.

A typical representative of the steppe flora is feather grass. This is a perennial herb with a short rhizome and long, narrow leaves that look like wire. The main enemy of feather grass, like all steppe plants, is uncontrolled grazing, in which the grass is ruthlessly trampled down.

Rice. 1. Feather.

Over the long years of evolution, all steppe plants were able to adapt to the conditions of the arid natural zone.
Their features include:

• Small narrow leaves - to reduce the surface of evaporation of moisture. Some types of plants are able to curl their leaves during a drought, so as not to waste precious moisture.
• Foliage color - grayish, sandy, bluish-green. It is almost impossible to meet plants with bright green leaves in the steppe.
• Many plants have an extensive root system, with which they extract moisture from the ground.
• Steppe grasses are able to tolerate heat and long dry periods very well.

Along the banks of rivers flowing in the steppe areas, you can find small trees and shrubs: willow, wild grapes, hawthorn. In places with saline soil, special plants grow that can survive in such difficult conditions: sveda, saline wormwood, soleros. Among the animals of the steppe, insects and rodents are distinguished by the greatest diversity of species.

Rice. 2. Soleros.

Steppe plants in spring

Always reserved for most of the year, in early spring the steppe transforms before our very eyes. Thanks to spring rains, the earth is covered with a colorful carpet of various flowering plants: wild tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, poppies, crocuses.

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Steppe flowers differ from their cultivated counterparts in a much more modest size and somewhat unusual shapes. A typical example is the Schrenk tulip - an unusually colorful steppe flower, listed in the Red Book. Under the strictest ban is the collection of plants, digging bulbs, selling bouquets of these flowers and their bulbs.

Rice. 3. Tulip Schrenk.

Before the onset of heat, steppe plants have time to bloom and form seeds, stock up the necessary nutrients in the tubers, which will allow them to bloom next year.

Now on the territory of our homeland it is difficult to find pristine places untouched by man. Most of the plains suitable for agriculture are plowed up, forests are cut down, water bodies are polluted, blocked by dams and other structures. Pure nature is now a rarity. This can be said about the real Russian steppe, which has survived untouched only in some places in Siberia and the European zone of Russia. But such sites are of great interest to botanists and amateurs, because their flora is able to amaze the imagination. What plants grow in the steppes?

forbs

The most diverse and, no doubt, the most beautiful is the forb steppe. She can surprise with her appearance literally from the very beginning of spring, when the snow just melts. At this time, this territory has a brown color, due to the remainder last year's herbs. But in just a couple of days on the ground you can see large lumbago bells, they look pubescent and have a purple color. Such a culture is still familiar to many, like sleep-grass. Also in early spring, small green seedlings of cereals and sedges appear in the steppe.

After another couple of weeks, beautiful golden adonis flowers appear among the greenery, which, like stars or lights, are visible in the still thin grass. Hyacinth flowers also open, they have a pale blue color.

Over time, green grasses rise higher and higher, in such greenery one can only occasionally see small whitish stars of anemone, as well as nomad brushes. In the middle of summer, the steppe is painted in purple tones - sage blooms en masse. He is being replaced White color- flowers of chamomile, mountain clover and fluffy cream meadowsweet.

The herbaceous steppe is able to amaze the imagination at any time. In some parts of it, more rare and interesting plants appear, for example, crocuses, snowdrops, hyacinths and tulips. But it is not possible to admire their flowering for long. By the way, such cultures are interesting in that all the nutrients stored since autumn are stored in their bulbs, which allows the flowers to delight us with their beauty almost immediately after the snow breaks.

feather grass steppe

Such steppes are rarely found in the south of Russia, but earlier feather grass was the main plant of our steppes. This culture usually coexists with cereals: fescue, keleria, couch grass, etc. Such plants have an abundant fibrous type root system that penetrates very deep into the ground, trying to get water. Also, quite large dicotyledonous crops are often found in the feather grass steppe - purple mullein, kermek, as well as yellow feverfew. Such individuals have even longer roots, which allows them to reach even groundwater.

Very interesting are small plants that live in the most upper layers soil. They are called ephemera, and their root system often does not even reach ten centimeters. Such plants do not live long, while there is still moisture in the soil from melting snow. Ephemera are very short life cycle and a long dormant period.

The feather grass itself is a very interesting culture. It is a drought-resistant cereal that has a bundle of cord-like roots. Such a root system diverges widely and deeply along the ground, sucking out all possible moisture. During flowering, the feather grass forms a special feather, which is fluffy and light. Its awn is attached to a tiny caryopsis. After the seeds ripen, the grain is carried by such a feather along with the wind over very long distances. After that, it gently falls below the ground and with its sharp end easily penetrates the ground. Changes in air humidity in the morning and evening lead to the fact that the pinnate awn on the caryopsis slowly rotates, as if burying the planting material in the ground. If the grains get on the animal's hair, they will behave the same way - penetrating into the skin and muscles, which is fraught with illness and even death.

Toward the end of summer, as well as in autumn, a very interesting phenomenon can be seen in the feather grass steppe during the winds. A light and almost transparent ball jumps over the brown and yellowed grass. It can land, bounce off the ground, and fly downwind again for very long distances. This phenomenon is called a tumbleweed, the ball consists of several plants (for example, kachim, kermek, zopnik, etc.), clinging together with dried stems and leaves. Thanks to this property, these steppe crops reproduce, because as the ball moves, seeds fall from it, which will become new plants next year.

The southern steppes are located on large areas in Western Siberia. Here the herbage mostly consists of grasses: feather grass, wheatgrass, oats and fescue. However, other species of feather grass are found in this region. In addition, in such a steppe you can find astragalus, ranks, sickle-shaped alfalfa. Many dicotyledonous plants can grow in the Siberian steppes, but they are not able to give such a bright change of colors as in European forbs.

So, we can conclude that not all plants are found in the steppes. Most of the plant crops in the steppe are highly resistant to drought. They easily endure weather difficulties, are characterized by interesting methods of reproduction. And in the warm season, the steppe is an incredibly beautiful sight.

The climate of the zone is dry, continental with hot, dry summers, cold winters, and little snow cover. In summer, it evaporates from the soil surface by 2-4 times. more moisture than it drops out. In the northern part of the zone, where dark chestnut soils are formed, 300-400 mm of precipitation falls annually, in the central part - 300-350 mm and in the southern part with light chestnut soils - 250-350 mm. The amount of precipitation from west to east decreases to 200-250 mm. The average annual temperature in the European part of the zone is + 3°С, and in the Asian part +2-3°С. The frost-free period is 180-190 days in the European and 110-120 days in the Asian parts of the zone. Dry winds are frequent here, causing dust storms and the death of plants.

The relief of the zone is predominantly flat or flat-slightly wavy with a distinct microrelief. There are depressions, estuaries.

Dry steppes are transitional between steppes and deserts. In contrast to the real ones, in the herbage of dry steppes, the dominance of turf grasses is less pronounced. At the same time, the role of various types of polynyas increases. The herbage is characterized by relatively low density. Species richness is 30-40 species per 100 m 2 . Productivity fluctuates greatly in different years in terms of rainfall and in different months of the grazing season. The yield of grass stands is 10-30 c/ha (in fresh weight), however, dry steppes almost completely burn out by the beginning of summer. In the zones of dry steppes, chestnut soils predominate. Also in these zones there is a significant amount of intrazonal soils - solonetzes, solonchaks and solods.

The vegetation of the zone is relatively poor in composition, especially in the southern part. Among herbaceous plants, feather grass, fescue, wormwood, thin-legged, various ephemera,

forming sagebrush-fescue steppes. Meadow vegetation penetrates into the zone of dry steppes along valleys and river floodplains. Woody plants in this zone are confined to low areas, most often to the slopes and bottoms of gullies, ravines, and river floodplains. Oak, Tatar maple, aspen, pine, elm, white acacia grow here. Forest plantations develop on dark chestnut and chestnut soils. However, forests in this zone have a limited distribution, the predominant type of vegetation is steppe.

1. Characteristics of the vegetation of the dry steppe

a) Forage plants

Sarepta feather grass- a perennial densely tufted grass 40-80 cm high. In appearance it is very close to the hairy feather grass, but differs from it in shorter and narrower leaves. Awn 10-16 cm long, sometimes up to 21 cm, twice genu-flex, hairy, rough. Blooms from May to June. As a rule, it does not form the basis of the herbage. It tolerates high soil salinity and fades 15-20 days earlier than hairy feather grass. Contains a significant amount of protein - 12.2%.

Feather Lessing- perennial dense bushy grass 30-70 cm high with a fibrous root system. The awn is pinnate, twice articulated, twisted below the second knee, glabrous, caryopsis small, 9-11 mm long, hairy. Blooms in late April early May. In terms of nutrition, this best plant from all feather grasses. Harvest of green mass 10-15 q/ha (hay 5-8 q/ha). It is mainly a pasture plant, but it can also be used for haymaking. Hay harvested before flowering is good fodder for all types of livestock. In early spring it is eaten well, but by the beginning of earing the palatability decreases sharply; from the beginning of flowering, the plant is almost not eaten. By autumn, the palatability improves, the young aftermath is eaten well.

Ukrainian feather grass- a perennial plant with a height of 30 to 60 cm. The leaves are rough, up to 0.6 mm in diameter, densely hairy inside. Single-flowered spike, inflorescence - a rare panicle. Flowering period - May, pollinated by the wind. The fruit is narrow with hairs that fix it in the soil, bears fruit abundantly. Used as feed for livestock, the species is also often used for decorative purposes in arranging bouquets.

tipchak- the most widely represented pasture turf plant in the composition of steppe herbages 10-20 cm high. Usually different types of steppe fescue are called fescue (false sheep fescue, Valis fescue, Bekker fescue, etc.), however, they are very similar in structure and fodder qualities. Tipchak is well eaten by livestock, especially sheep and horses, is resistant to grazing, drought-resistant, quickly grows back after grazing. Thanks to the last three qualities, it plays a dominant role on moderately and heavily downtrodden steppe grass stands. Protein contains 16% in the tillering phase. A significant part of the leaves of the fescue winters in a green state under the snow, which increases the value of this grass on winter and early spring pastures.

Figure 4 - Tipchak	Figure 5 - Thin-legged comb	Figure 6 - Branched hair

slender-legged crested- a perennial herbaceous densely soddy plant of the bluegrass family with numerous shoots 10–90 cm high. The leaves are harsh, bluish-green in color. Panicles are dense, cylindrical, gradually narrowed towards the apex and base. Spikelets of 2-3 flowers, glumes shortly pointed, glabrous. Forage plant. Contains in the flowering phase 1.8% protein, 3.0% fat, 33.5% fiber. Gives up to 5-7 c/ha of high quality hay. On pastures in spring and summer, it is eaten by all kinds of domestic animals, being a good fattening and milk-producing food. With the onset of drought, it quickly loses its nutritional properties. In the autumn-winter period, it serves as fodder for sheep.

Hair branched- perennial grass 30-50 cm high, with a creeping rhizome. The stem at the very base is branched, glabrous, smooth. Leaves curled, rough. The spike is linear, sparse, 4-8 cm long, 6-8 mm wide, its awn along the ribs is rigidly ciliated, the spikelets are bluish-green, sometimes with a purple tint or an erasable bluish bloom. It tolerates saline soil better than other cereals, is significantly drought-resistant and even more salt-tolerant. Good fodder grass. On pasture and in hay it is eaten by all kinds of animals. After mowing and grazing, the aftermath grows quite satisfactorily. The yield of hay is 4-6 c/ha or 12-20 c/ha of green grass. Seed productivity is low and decreases with age, especially on fallows. Due to the deep occurrence of rhizomes, the fight is more difficult than with creeping wheatgrass, like with a weed. However, the plant is promising and is recommended for creating sustainable pastures in solonetsous meadows.

Bulbous bluegrass- perennial ephemeroid turf plant with thin shallow roots, up to 30 cm high. Stems in the lower part with an onion-like thickening, glabrous. The leaves are narrowly linear, more or less folded, glabrous, rough along the edge. Inflorescence -panicle, oblong, dense, rarely spreading, 6-8 cm long. Blooms from late April to May. Distributed on clayey and sandy loamy soils of plains and foothills. It is drought-resistant, tolerates solonetzic and gravelly soils, frost-resistant. Starts growing in early spring and develops within 30-35 days. Propagated in nature by brood buds-bulbs, which remain viable for 8-12 years. It tolerates trampling well. Valuable pasture plant. Willingly eaten by all kinds of livestock. Considered a fattening plant for sheep. Pasture fodder yield up to 4 centners of dry weight per 1 ha. Early spring pasture grass, in favorable wet years, gives a dense herbage and forms the basis of spring hayfields.

Figure 2.7 -

Bulbous bluegrass

b) leguminous plants

Lucerne Romanian- perennial plant up to 80 cm in height. Stems numerous, straight, well-leaved, protruding-shaggy-hairy. Leaflets linear, entire or finely serrated. The flower clusters are dense, the corolla is yellow, more often light yellow. The pods are straight or slightly sickle-shaped, grayish from dense pubescence, or slightly pubescent, sticking up on straight stalks. Blooms from June to July. Refers to high quality feed. Due to the high self-seedability on pastures, with a single sowing, it remains in the herbage for a long time. More drought-resistant and salt-tolerant, better leafy.

Peas thin-leaved- perennial plant up to 150 cm tall, with a thin rhizome. Stems are ribbed, pubescent, erect or ascending. The brush is long, sparse, the corolla is bright blue-violet. Legumes on a long stem, oblong-lanceolate or linear-oblong, glabrous. Seeds are spherical, with a scar covering a quarter of the achene. Blooms in May-July. The plant in fresh and dry form is well eaten by large cattle, sheep, horses. Has a high nutritional value.

Figure 8 - Romanian Alfalfa	Figure 9 - Thin-leaved peas	Figure 10 - Sandy sainfoin

Sainfoin sandy- perennial, reaching a height of 80 cm. Its root system is quite powerful, the root grows in depth, reaching 2.7 meters. The stems are thick, erect, there are times when the stem becomes very coarse at the base. The leaves are pinnate, compound, they consist of 6-10 pairs of oblong-lanceolate leaflets. The inflorescence is a multi-flowered raceme, the length of which can reach 20 cm. The flowers are large, moth-like, delicate pink, sometimes white, collected in dense brushes. The fruit of the plant is an egg-shaped bean. Its length is from 5 to 7 mm, thickness - about 4 mm, brownish-brown color. Seeds are brown, kidney-shaped. This variety of sainfoin blooms in May-July. Sainfoin is a valuable plant that provides nutritious food with a high protein content (up to 23%). The leaves contain up to 230 mg of ascorbic acid. It has long been introduced into cultivation and is widely cultivated in field and fodder crop rotations in the southern regions of our country. It gives the highest yields of above-ground mass in the 2-3rd year - over 70 kg / ha.

c) Forbs

Rogach- annual, 5-30 cm high, forked-branched pubescent grasses, usually forming spherical bushes (tumbleweed). The leaves are linear or linear-lanceolate, with a strong prickly point. Flowers unisexual (plants monoecious), mostly solitary, axillary. In semi-deserts and deserts, they are well eaten by large and small cattle and horses.

Astra alpine- perennial rhizomatous herbaceous or semi-shrub plant with a horizontally branched rhizome. Stems 25-30 cm tall, strong, slightly pubescent. Basal leaves oblong, spatulate, pubescent; stem - small, linear, sessile. They do not die off for the winter and go green before winter. Bush size up to 50 cm. Inflorescences - single baskets 4-5 cm in diameter. Reed flowers marginal, arranged in 1 row, white, lilac, purple; tubular - in the center, yellow. Blooms in late May-mid June. The fruit is an achene with a hairy tuft. Seeds ripen in late July-August and retain the hereditary qualities of clones. Well eaten by sheep and horses, especially before flowering, worse by cattle.

Figure 11 - Rogach	Figure 12 - Alpine aster	Figure 13 - Highlander bird (knotweed)

Highlander bird (knotweed)- an annual herbaceous plant with a thin tap root. The stems are round, thin, prostrate, knotty, usually branching from the very base, 10-60 cm long. The leaves are alternate, elliptical or lanceolate with a blunt apex. Bells are whitish, membranous. The flowers are small, five-membered, greenish-white, not isolated in the inflorescence, collected in bunches of 2-5 in the axils of the leaves. The fruit is a small nut.

Flowering and fruiting from July to late autumn. The plant is readily eaten by all types of livestock, contains a lot of digestible protein. Knotweed grows profusely in places of heavy trampling, on cattle passes, around camps, etc. The plant is resistant to grazing, grows well after grazing and remains juicy throughout the summer.

Wormwood cold- a perennial plant up to 40 cm in height, with a woody multi-headed root. Stems densely leafy, thin, pubescent. The leaves are short-petiolate, grayish from dense pubescence.

Panicle racemose, with short or elongated lateral branches. Baskets are almost spherical, on short legs, collected in heads. Achenes oblong-ovate. Blossoms in July-August, and bears fruit in September. With improper use or with increased load on feather grass-forb, fescue-feather grass, fescue pastures, the role of cold wormwood increases and often in these cases it is the predominant plant.

Wormwood cold from spring begins to vegetate early. Leaves often in a green state go into winter and in a semi-dried state remain under the snow. The nutritional value of cold wormwood is not lower than the nutritional value of good cereal hay. It is well eaten by sheep, worse by horses, camels and cattle. According to fattening (summer-autumn) properties, it ranks first among polynyas. In hay it is eaten satisfactorily by all kinds of livestock.

d) Medicinal plants

Licorice naked- perennial root-spring plant up to 1 m in height, with a powerful root system. Stems are straight, well leafy. The leaves are covered with sticky glandular hairs. Fruity, brown bean. Seeds are round or irregular in shape, slightly compressed laterally, smooth, dull or slightly shiny, greenish-brown or brown. Blooms from May to June.

Licorice develops well in the presence of shallow groundwater. Grows in May. It is satisfactorily eaten in the pasture by sheep before fruiting, cattle and horses eat little. Licorice is much more valuable as a hay and silage plant. Hay is quite satisfactorily eaten by all kinds of animals. The nutritional value of licorice hay harvested in the fruiting phase is close to the nutritional value of cereal hay good quality. The roots are used for medicinal purposes. Used in the food industry.

Melilot officinalis- biennial up to 200 cm tall. The root is taproot, powerful, going deep into the soil by 200 cm or more. The stem is straight, glabrous, often hairy in the upper part. Pods are ovoid, glabrous, transversely wrinkled, one-seeded. Seeds are greenish-yellow, smooth. Blooms from May to July. It is characterized by high drought resistance and unpretentiousness to soils. Very salt-tolerant and high-yielding (up to 60 kg and even 140 kg/ha of dry matter). The yield of seeds is 6-15 kg/ha. Grazing resistant. It contains up to 1.5% coumarin, as a result of which it has a specific smell, a bitter taste, and therefore it is poorly grazing in the first days of grazing, then the cattle begin to eat quite willingly. The toxic effect of sweet clover is associated with the transition of coumarin to dicoumarin during molding. Feeding animals with spoiled sweet clover is extremely dangerous. It tolerates trampling and compaction of the soil. The yield of natural thickets ranges from 10 to 35 c/ha of hay. One of the best pasture plants. The value of silage lies in the fact that it contains an increased amount of digestible protein. It is recommended to improve the physical and chemical properties of solonetz soils. When using sweet clover for silage, you should not be late with harvesting. The best time for harvesting for silage is the beginning of flowering. For ensiling, it is better to mix with any cereals, in an amount of 15-20%.

Grows early in the spring, gives two cuts. Excellent honey plant. Used for green manure. Considering that sweet clover gives a large amount of green fodder during the period when the growth of many pasture plants stops, it is a good phytomeliorant on solonets and alkaline soils. In culture, yields, depending on soils, up to 60 centners / ha of dry matter, in favorable conditions it reaches 140 centners / ha.

Mouse peas- perennial plant up to 150 cm tall, with a long rhizome. Stems branched, lanceolate, ribbed, glabrous. Leaflets linear-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate. Corolla blue-violet, rarely white. Pods are oblong-rhombic, glabrous, greenish-gray or brownish-brown; seeds from four to eight pieces, they are black or spotted; weight of 1000 seeds is 8-10 g. One plant produces up to 600 seeds. Blooms from May to July. It is drought-resistant, tolerates flooding for up to 50 days, is not afraid of little snow, cold winters. One of the best forage grasses. In spring and summer, it is eaten by all kinds of animals, but disappears when grazing from the herbage. According to the literature data, in experimental works, grass mixtures with mouse peas for two mowing yields from 67 to 113 c/ha. It remains in herbage for more than ten years. In culture, it grows slowly, both after overwintering in the spring and after the first mowing. By the time of flowering lies down. Seeds ripen unevenly, beans crack. It is difficult to choose the optimal time for harvesting for seeds, with half of the ripe beans of the lower tier the upper half of the plant is covered with green beans, partially still in the process of growth. In the year of sowing, it develops slowly and grows from the fourth year, keeps in grass stands for a long time (more than 10 years). Seeds are severely damaged by the five-spotted bean elephant. When cultivated for seeds, it should be sown in a mixture with some kind of cereal so that the tender stalks of peas have support. Sowing is carried out in a wide-row way. Seeding rate 4 kg/ha. Seed germination is usually 10-13%, after scarification it rises to 80%. Promising for introduction into culture.

e) honey plants

Chicory ordinary- a perennial plant 40-120 cm high, with a multi-headed tap root. Stem erect, usually branched. Baskets numerous, rarely solitary, corollas blue, rarely whitish. Achenes 2-3 mm long, veiny-small tuberculate, truncated at the apex, with a tuft. Blooms from June to October. Vegetation starts early and continues until autumn. Does not dry out during summer drought. Overwinters as rosettes of leaves. It tolerates moderate grazing well. On pastures in the form of green top dressing, it is satisfactorily eaten by all types of farm animals. It is valuable that on steppe pastures it provides food at a time when other plants dry up. Common chicory helps to increase milk yield and improves the quality of milk. As a hay plant, it is of no value: it dries poorly, often becomes moldy. In culture, common chicory is a biennial plant. A good honey plant, a coffee surrogate is extracted from the roots, alcohol is obtained.

Figure 18 - Common chicory	Figure 19 - Karagan shrub	Figure 20 - Meadow goatbeard

Karagan shrub- shrub slightly prickly, 0.5-2 m high. Leaves are bare or appressed-hairy with a thin spine. The corolla is bright yellow, the flag is round-ovate, 3.5 times longer than the wedge-shaped nail, the boat is tight. Bob is cylindrical. Flowering from May to July, fruiting from July to September. During flowering, a good honey plant. Young shoots and leaves are eaten by sheep and cattle. Ornamental shrub suitable for landscaping, fixing slopes and ravines.

meadow goatbeard- a biennial plant 25-140 cm high, with a vertical cylindrical root. The leaves are long, linear, semi-amplex at the base. Baskets solitary, on the legs of stems and branches. The flowers are light yellow. Achenes are curved, furrowed, passing into a long, thin spout. Flowering and fruiting in May-September. In spring, all kinds of animals are eaten willingly, in summer it is satisfactory, in autumn and winter it is bad. It is considered a milk-producing feed for dairy cows. Sheep eat well the whole plant, except for seeds. Good honey plant. Young leaves, stems and roots are eaten. Stems and roots contain up to 1% rubber.

Vegetation

The Rostov region is occupied by two zones of vegetation: feather grass steppe zone and semi-desert zone, or wormwood-fescue steppes. The first occupies most of the region, and the second - only the extreme southeast (in the upper reaches of the Sal and Manych). Steppes are called vast flat spaces covered with grassy vegetation, well adapted to the conditions of an arid climate. Here is how A.P. Chekhov described them in the story “The Steppe”: “Before the eyes of those who were traveling there was a wide, endless plain intercepted by a chain of hills. Crowding and peering out from behind each other, these hills merge into a hill that stretches to the right of the road to the very horizon and disappears into the purple distance; you go, you go and you can’t make out where it begins and where it ends.”

Feather-grass steppes in the past occupied large areas on the Don. At present, they are almost completely plowed up. In order to restore the picture of real steppe vegetation, we must turn to those few areas of steppe virgin lands that are still preserved in various parts of the region. Some of them are registered and protected.

Vegetation map of the Rostov region

Up to 400 species of various herbs and shrubs grow in the virgin steppes of the Don. The main cover is formed turf cereals growing in dense turf bushes: feather grass, fescue and celleria. Are of lesser importance rhizomatous cereals: bonfires, wheatgrass and bluegrass angustifolia.

In addition, growing in the steppe legumes: yellow alfalfa,fine-leaved vetch, sainfoin, licorice and others. These are valuable fodder grasses. Found in abundance in the steppes forbs: drooping sage and steppe (cornflowers),adonis (Adonis),steppe peony (voronets), steppe aster (sage),Tumbleweed: katrans, kermeks, swing and others, and in the downed places - wormwood.

tipchak

Alfalfa

drooping sage

A special group is made up of early spring plants with a short period of development: ephemera (annual)— beetroot,ranunculus and others as well ephemeroids (perennials)— bluegrass bulbous (thin-legged),tulips, goose bows, crocus and some others.

Buttercup

Tulip

Ephedra (Kalmyk raspberry)

Bulbous mint (thin-legged)

Wild almond (bean)

goose bow

In drier steppes are common shrubs — romantic (feverfew) and rods (outstretched kochia).

From shrubs grow on flat ground wild almond (bean) and dereza (Siberian), along the beams - turn, and in drier places - shrub-ephedra (Kalmyk raspberry).

From the group of "lower" plants there are mosses, seaweed nostoc, lichens and mushrooms.

Steppe plants are well adapted to a dry climate: they have a number of adaptations that reduce evaporation. However, they strongly evaporate water, which protects them from overheating by the sun. A powerful root system serves them to supply water from great depths.

During the hottest hours of the day, evaporation exceeds the inflow of water from the soil, and without protective devices the plant may die. That is why some herbs have very narrow, hard leaves that roll up into a tube in dry weather (feather grass, fescue), others are densely covered with hairs (steppe aster, wormwood) or a wax coating. Only early spring plants do not have any adaptations to retain moisture. They finish development before the onset of drought.

The zone of feather grass steppes on the Don is divided into two subzones. The northern and western parts of the region are subzone of forb-feather grass steppes. The soils here are chernozem, precipitation is up to 500 mm. There are a lot of forbs and legumes in these steppes. There are few ephemera. The herbage is thick and tall.

During the growing season, the steppe changes its appearance several times. There is a rapid change of colorful pictures (change of aspects). Already at the end of March-April, against the brown background of the steppe, yellow islands of adonis (Adonis) and yellow stars of goose onions appear, a little later - purple and yellow irises (cockerels), and in some steppes red and yellow tulips bloom in huge numbers.

From the end of April and most of May the steppe is green. Shrubs bloom during this period: wild almond (bean), blackthorn and dereza - pink, white and yellow spots. Fiery red steppe peonies bloom. Bulbous bluegrass develops from cereals at this time.

Around May 20, mass flowering of feather grass begins, and the steppe becomes white. With great artistic power, M. A. Sholokhov conveys the beauty of the steppe at this time in the novel “Quiet Flows the Don”: “The feather grass has matured. The steppe was clad in swaying silver for many versts. The wind resiliently crushed it, swooping in, roughening it, driving gray-opal waves first to the south, then to the west. Where flowing air ran

stream, the feather-grass bent prayerfully, and for a long time a blackening path lay on its gray ridge. On a feather grass background, large blue islands of drooping sage and vetch, white fragrant balls of katrans, pink thyme flowers and many other flowering plants stand out.

In the second half of June, the grasses begin to turn brown, but the steppe is still motley. Blue thickets of steppe sage, yellow thickets of alfalfa, pink islands of sainfoin, balls of some tumbleweeds and a number of other plants bloom.

In early July, most of the plants fade, and the steppe becomes brown. Only in rainy years, when the tyrsa feather grass develops strongly, does it remain golden-green in places. At the same time, late tumbleweeds bloom: purple balls of kermek and others. In September the steppe is brown. This monotony is broken by the flowering of the steppe aster, wormwood and a few other plants. At the end of November - in December the steppe is covered with snow.

Feather Lessing

Sainfoin

less colorful subzone of fescue-feather grass steppes. It occupies the eastern part of the region, with the exception of the extreme southeast. The soils here are dark chestnut and chestnut, precipitation falls from 400 to 300 mm.

Of the cereal grasses, fescue and feather grass predominate, there are few forbs. Subshrubs, chamomile and prostrate kochia are common. There are much more ephemera here. Herbage is sparse and low. Thickets of shrubs are found only along the beams.

The southeastern regions of the region are occupied by wormwood-fescue steppes, or semi-deserts. There is little precipitation here - up to 300 mm. Light chestnut soils with spots of solonetzes predominate. Fescue, gray wormwood, chamomile, steppe aster, and prutnyak grow. The herbage is low and sparse. On salt licks, the herbage is even more sparse. Fescue, white and black wormwood and others grow here.

depressions- small rounded depressions - have dark-colored soils and bright juicy greens. The herbage on them is dense and tall. It is dominated by couch grass, pontic wormwood, licorice.

Reed (bulrush)

Kamysh (Kuga)

Soleros

Vegetation cover Don floodplain (zaimishcha) heterogeneous: here grow and meadow, and marsh, and aquatic, and saline grasses.

Meadow vegetation consists of grasses, mainly couch grass, various sedges, legumes - vetch, clover, licorice and meadow herbs - watercress, plakun-grass (sorrel), sorrel.

swamp vegetation occupies large areas along the lower reaches of the Don and in the floodplains of other rivers. Reed (bulrush) and reeds (kuga) form huge thickets here. They also grow in swampy areas. cattail (chakan), iris (cockerels),calamus, various sedge and others. For salt marshes, formed in the floodplains of rivers and near salt lakes, are characteristic soleros,sweda, kermeks, saline wormwood, shrub sarsazan, bush tamarisk and a number of others.

In river floodplains, part of the land is occupied by hayfields and pastures, and part is plowed under garden and other crops. Some swamp grasses are used for economic purposes: reeds and reeds are used to make reed slabs and other building materials. From the cane you can get a protein paste - a valuable animal feed, as well as cellulose.

weed plants, which grow in the fields, bring great harm agriculture. it thistle field, couch grass, colza (field mustard),kurai, mice, amaranth, dodder, bindweed and many others. The main measures to combat them are proper tillage and care. cultivated plants. Recently, chemical weed control agents, the so-called herbicides, have been used.

Surepka

Kurai

Many wild plants are used to make medicines. These include calamus, lily of the valley, spring adonis, celandine, shepherd's purse, gray jaundice, licorice, medicinal sweet clover, marshmallow, oregano, motherwort, black henbane, elecampane, yarrow, medicinal chamomile, coltsfoot, medicinal dandelion and other.

honey plants serve: sweet clover, alfalfa, sainfoin, clover, colza, sage, thyme, bruise, oregano.

Lesov there are few in the Rostov region: they occupy only about three percent of the territory. They grow in the northern part of the region, mainly in the upper reaches of the beams and floodplains.

Celandine

Altey

Oregano

Melilot officinalis

Adonis (spring)

Valerian

Jaundice gray

Clover

Thyme

Scaffolding located in beams is called ravine. They consist of oak, ash, maple, elm, linden, aspen, pear, apple, as well as shrubs: black maple, viburnum, buckthorn, euonymus, privet, elderberry. Blackthorn, wild rose, hawthorn and others grow along the edges.

floodplain forests composition tree species are similar to barracks. Grow in damp places aspen, aspen, alder and and you.

There are no ravine forests in the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov. Thickets grow here along the banks of the rivers willows, and in the beams - turn.

In the eastern regions of the region, forests grow in floodplains in only a few places. There are no ravine forests at all. Thickets of shrubs are found only along the beams.

Much attention is paid to artificial afforestation on the Don. Several forestries, forestries and more than three dozen forest protection stations of the region are creating new forests and forest belts on sandy massifs, on the banks of reservoirs, on the slopes of ravines and gullies. Trees protect the fields from destructive dry winds, help to accumulate moisture in the soil, strengthen the banks of rivers and reservoirs, the slopes of gullies and ravines, and stop the movement of sand.

Per last years Much has also been done to create state forest belts that run in our region along the banks of the Don (from Voronezh to Rostov) and the Northern Donets (from Belgorod to the confluence with the Don). The third lane goes along the watershed of two tributaries of the Don - Khopra and Medveditsa - from Penza to Kamensk.

Forest plantations are of great importance. They not only have a beneficial effect on natural conditions, but also improve and decorate the life of a Soviet person. That is why the Law on Nature Protection requires the conservation and enhancement of tree and shrub vegetation.

Natural herbaceous vegetation also affects the climate, the water regime of rivers, and enriches the soil.

It also has great economic importance: it serves as a food base for animals, provides medicinal and technical raw materials. Therefore, on pastures, it is necessary to observe the timing of grazing, overseeding of grasses in order to improve the herbage, etc.

Over the past decades, hundreds of thousands of hectares of virgin lands have been plowed up in our region. Wheat crops, orchards and vineyards are now spread over these areas.

But this does not mean that we do not value the natural steppe vegetation and do not protect it. Currently, wildlife sanctuaries have been created in many districts of the region. Here you can only mow hay. There are such reserves in Malchevsky, Salsky, Zimovnikovsky, Remontnensky and other areas. In addition, near the station Persianovka to the north of Novocherkassk, on the territory of the Donskoy Agricultural Institute, there is a protected area of ​​the steppe.

Residents of cities and villages, and schoolchildren in the first place, should take care of the natural resources of the region, protect forests from fires and predatory cuttings. Nature is a national wealth, and everyone should love and protect it.

Questions and tasks.

1. What vegetation zone is our area in? Name the main types of natural vegetation.

2. What useful plants are available in your area?

3. What tree species do windbreaks and forests consist of? Do you care for them, do you protect them?

4. Are there places in your district that are declared nature reserves? Take a tour there and collect plants for the herbarium.

5. What activities could your school take to protect protected areas?

https://linkyou.ru/ linkyou.ru.

What plants grow in the steppe?

• Mountain steppes with lush alpine vegetation and high mountains, characterized by sparse and inconspicuous vegetation, mainly consisting of grains and breakwort.
• Meadow. Steppes, characterized by the presence of small forests that form glades and edges.
• Real. Steppes with feather grass and fescue growing on them in great predominance. These are the most typical steppe plants.
• Saz - steppes, consisting of plants that adapt to an arid climate, shrubs.
• Desert steppes on which desert grasses grow tumbleweed, wormwood, prutnyak
• It is also necessary to say a few words about the forest-steppes, which are characterized by the alternation of deciduous forests and coniferous forests with areas of steppes, since the plants of the steppe and forest-steppe differ only in subspecies.

The steppe has its embodiment on any continent except Antarctica, and on different continents it has its own name: in North America it is a prairie, in South America- pampas (pampas), in South America, Africa and Australia - this is a savannah. In New Zealand, the steppe is called Tussoki.

Let us consider in more detail which plants grow in the steppe.

Plant species of the steppe

• Krupka. This is an annual plant of the cruciferous family, growing in the highlands and in the tundra. There are about 100 varieties of grains, typical for our steppes. It is characterized by a branched stem with oblong leaves, crowned with tassels of yellow flowers. Flowering period April - July. In folk herbal medicine, krupka is used as a hemostatic, expectorant and diuretic.
• Breaker. It is also an annual plant, about 25 cm long and has oblong leaves, many flower arrows, each of which ends in an inflorescence consisting of tiny white flowers. Prolomnik is used as an anti-inflammatory, analgesic, diuretic and hemostatic, as well as an anticonvulsant for epilepsy.
• Poppy. Depending on the species, it is an annual or perennial herb with flower buds on long peduncles. It grows on rocky slopes, near mountain streams and rivers, in fields, along roads. And although poppies are poisonous, they are widely used in herbal medicine as a sedative and hypnotic for insomnia, as well as for some diseases of the intestines and bladder.
• Tulips are perennial herbaceous plants of the steppe of the lily family with large and bright flowers. They mainly grow in semi-desert, desert and mountainous areas.
• Astragalus. This plant has more than 950 species of various colors and shades, growing in desert and dry steppes, in the forest zone and in alpine meadows. It is widely used for edema, dropsy, gastroenteritis, diseases of the spleen, as a tonic, as well as for headaches and hypertension.
• Feather grass. It is also a variety of herbs. There are more than 60 of them, and the most common of them is the feather grass. It is a perennial plant of the grass family. The feather grass grows up to 1 meter tall with smooth stems and spinous leaves. Stipa is used as a decoction in milk for goiter and paralysis.
• Mullein. This is a large (up to 2 m) plant with hairy leaves and large yellow flowers. Studies of the plant have shown the presence in its flowers of many useful substances, such as flavonoids, saponins, coumarin, gum, essential oil, aukubin glycoside, the content of ascorbic acid and carotene. Therefore, the plant is actively used as a food additive in salads and hot dishes, drinks are prepared, and they are also eaten fresh.
• Melissa officinalis. It is a perennial tall herb with a pronounced lemon scent. The stems of the plant are crowned with bluish-lilac flowers, which are collected in false rings. Lemon balm leaves contain essential oil, ascorbic acid, and some organic acids.
• Camel's thorn is a semi-shrub, up to 1 meter in height, with a powerful root system, bare stems with long spines and red (pink) flowers.

  The camel's thorn is widespread in the riverine space, grows along ditches and canals, on wastelands and irrigated lands. The plant contains many vitamins, some organic acids, rubber, resins, tannins, essential oil, as well as carotene and wax. A decoction of the plant is used for colitis, gastritis and stomach ulcers.

• Sagebrush. It is a herbaceous or semi-shrub plant found almost everywhere. The whole plant has a straight stem with thin pinnately divided leaves and yellowish flowers collected in inflorescences. Wormwood is used as a spicy plant, and the essential oil is used in perfumery and cosmetics. Wormwood is also important as a fodder plant for livestock.
• So, we have considered only some types of steppe plants. And, of course, differences in the landscape leave their mark on the appearance of the herbs growing on it, but, nevertheless, some general properties. So steppe plants are characterized by:
  • Branched root system
  • bulb roots
  • Fleshy stems and thin, narrow leaves

Even more interesting

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What is STEP?

Steppes are the most species-rich community drought-resistant plants- xerophytes. They are common where the climate is warm but there is not enough rainfall to allow a forest to grow. Steppes - "a type of vegetation represented by a community of drought-resistant perennial herbaceous plants with a predominance of turf grasses, less often sedges and onions." If we analyze the geographical distribution of steppe landscapes on the globe, we will find -

Xia that the most typical steppes are formed in the inner regions of the mainland. Steppe zones of the temperate zones of the northern and southern hemispheres, characterized by a dry climate, treeless watersheds, dominance of herbaceous, predominantly cereal vegetation on chernozem, dark chestnut and chestnut soils.

The area is dominated by steppes, which are changed by pasture digression and represent short-grass pasture communities with dominance of fescue and sagebrush. Small fragments of the hay-growing variants of the steppe have been preserved, among which the southern, northern and central variants are distinguished, which represents the transition between the northern and southern ones. In the steppes central option if they are not disturbed by grazing, feather grass-pinnate, Zelessky, narrow-leaved are common. In addition, there are fescue and forbs are very abundantly represented. The steppe also includes shrubs - caragana, spirea, gorse, broom.

In addition to the mountain steppes, solonetzic steppes have been preserved in small fragments on the plain, which usually include wormwood Lerkha, Gmelin's kermek, and pseudo-wheatgrass. For the steppe on gravelly soils, it is characteristic

the participation of species - petrophytes, i.e. stone-loving ones - protozoa, thyme, mountain grate, Siberian cornflower and others. Such steppes are especially easily destroyed by pasture digression. The yield of steppe hayfields is up to 4-5 q/ha

Hay, the productivity of steppe pastures as a result of overgrazing is low and amounts to no more than 15-20 c/ha of green mass

throughout the pasture period. According to the classification, according to the research of Professor Mirkin B.M. , all the steppes of the Republic of Bashkortostan can be divided into two main types - meadow and typical. Meadows are common in the forest-steppe zone, and in the steppe zone they gravitate towards the slopes of the northern exposure.

Typical steppes occupy areas in the steppe zone of the republic.

Mordovnik ball-headed

A biennial or perennial herb from the Asteraceae family. The height of the plant reaches 1.5 m. The stem is single, straight, branched at the top. It is covered with glandular hairs. The leaves are twice pinnately dissected, large, 10 to 25 cm long and 4 to 10 cm wide. Rosette leaves with a petiole, the rest are sessile, amplexicaul. From above they are green, and from below they are covered with white felt, there are small spines along the edges. The flowers are collected in spherical inflorescences, they are bluish-white in color. Spherical heads have a diameter of 4-5cm. Seed fruits. It grows in river valleys, among shrubs, on the edges of island forests, in wastelands.

The plant population on the Roman-gora hill is represented by single plants. Occasionally there are "islands" of 5-10 plants. In general, the plants are in good vital condition.

Yarrow

Perennial herbaceous plant from the Asteraceae family. A plant with an upright stem. In the conditions of Belarus, its height ranges from 48 to 72 cm. Several shoots of stems depart from a thin creeping rhizome. The leaves are basal - lanceolate, doubly pinnately dissected into narrow small slices. Stem leaves shorter, pinnately dissected.

Stem leaves are shorter, pinnately dissected, divided into a large number of lobules. The inflorescence is corymbose, consisting of many flower baskets. The flowers are small, white, pink-purple or reddish. Blooms in June-August, a very long time.

It grows on the hill everywhere, where there are patches of meadow steppe. It is especially common on the southern side of the slope in gentle places, where cattle graze more often and closer to the Asly-Udryak river.

Asparagus officinalis

Perennial herbaceous plant from the lily family. The stem of asparagus is erect, reaching a height of up to 150 cm, strongly branched. The branches on the stem depart at an acute angle. The leaves are reduced to scales, modified shoots resembling leaves are formed in the axils of the stem. Underground stem straight, smooth. It is juicy, etiolated, forming shoots extending from the rhizome. These stems are used as a vegetable plant. The flowers are small, greenish-yellow. Perianth of six petals with 6 stamens.

The fruit is a red globular berry. Blooms in June - July. Asparagus grows in meadows, among thickets of shrubs, and is also found in the steppe, on the slopes of the mountains.

It is quite rare in the study area. Found in areas adjacent to the forest belt and located between rows of trees inside the forest belt. The population is represented by single plants.

Adonis spring

Perennial herbaceous plant from the buttercup family. Adonis has a two-stroke development - at the beginning

Early flowering is different, and then the stem and leaves are formed. Flower early in spring - from the end of April, in May. A bush in which there are up to 20-30 pieces of flowers blooms from 40 to 50 days. The very first flowers, as a rule, are large, but they are pale yellow, golden, apical, solitary, abundantly visited by bees. Adonis at the beginning of flowering has a bush height of 10 to 15 cm, and in the fruiting phase it reaches 30-70 cm. In each bush, there are from 2 to 15 generative and from 4 to 23 vegetative shoots.

Found throughout the study area. The population consists of more than 150 plants that are in good vital condition.

Budra ivy

Perennial, herbaceous plant from the mint family. Budra has a creeping and branched stem, it takes root, forming new stems. The leaves are petiolate, opposite, crenate-toothed, rounded kidney-shaped. They are covered with hairs. Flowers 3-4 pcs. located in the axils of the middle stem leaves, they are small, two-lipped, violet-blue or bluish-lilac in color. Pedicels 4-5 times shorter than the calyx, equipped with subulate bracts. The calyx is covered with hairs; its teeth are triangular, finely pointed. The height of the rising stems ranges from 10 to 40 cm. It blooms in May-June.

It grows along the ravine and on the south side of the slope. Numerous population, studied at the beginning of flowering.

St. John's wort

A perennial herbaceous plant from the St. John's wort family. The stem is straight, 45 to 80 cm high, glabrous, with two faces. Leaves oblong-ovate, entire, opposite, sessile. Translucent dotted receptacles are scattered on the leaves, which resemble holes - hence the name - perforated.

The flowers are numerous, golden-yellow in color, collected in a broadly paniculate, almost corymbose inflorescence. The sepals are acute with an entire margin. Petals twice as long as the sepals, blooms in June-July. The fruit is a three-celled multi-seeded basket, opens with 3 valves. The rhizome is thin, several stems depart from it.

Found only in one place on the eastern gently sloping side of the hill. Presented by 8-15 plants.

Veronica oak

Perennial herbaceous plant. Keeps green shoots all year round. The leaves are arranged oppositely, in the axils of the brush are not regular flowers. The flower has 2 stamens and 1 pistil. The fruit of Veronica is a flattened box.

Grows in meadow areas of the steppe of the study area. Plants are evenly distributed among other species. Often found on the outskirts of the forest belt.

Awnless bonfire

Belongs to the grass family. It has smooth stems, reaching a height of one meter. The leaves are flat and wide. Spikelets are collected in an inflorescence - a sprawling panicle. Bonfire is a good fodder grass, it blooms from the end of May and in June. From the creeping rhizome, many high erect shoots of peduncles depart.

In plant communities, the hill is a species that forms the environment, because. occurs uniformly often almost everywhere.

sporysh

Annual, herbaceous plant from the buckwheat family. A small plant with a height of 10 to 40 cm. It has straight stems, prostrate, branched. The leaves are elliptical or lanceolate, small, with a short spine.

The flowers are in the axils of the leaves, distributed evenly throughout the plant. The corolla of the flower is pale pink. The fruit is a trihedral nut. It blooms from May to October. It grows along the roads, on the streets, in the yards, on pastures. On pastures where there is a large load of livestock, all types of plants suffer, only knotweed remains.

This species is well expressed at the foot of the hill from the side of the river and animal stalls. Almost never found in the main system.

Common colza

Herbaceous plant from the cruciferous family. Bright green rosettes of colza from bizarre lyre-shaped. pinnately dissected leaves are seen in large numbers in the fields plowed last fall. Blooms in May-June. With an abundance of sun and moisture from the melted snow, a flower-bearing shoot with a brush of yellow flowers quickly stretches near the colza. The fruit is multi-seeded, opening with two valves. Good honey plant.

It grows unevenly in the vegetation cover of the hill and is found in a large way from the side of the field, located closer to the eastern slope.

Kozelets purple

Hemicarps at the base with a hollow swollen leg, 12 mm long, ribbed, light gray. Stems erect and ascending, furrowed, simple and branching. Basal leaves on long petioles, pinnate and dissected, with narrow linear lateral segments. Baskets are cylindrical, the involucre is slightly cobweb, then naked, its leaves are lanceolate, sometimes with a horn-shaped appendage. Flowers yellow, marginal reddish on the outside.

It grows on a hill on the lawns between the trees of the forest belt. It occurs moderately often, the population consists of single plants that are located at a relatively small distance from each other - from 40 to 60 cm.

Karagan

Belongs to the legume family. Shrub with gray straight thin branches, with four contiguous obovate leaves with a wedge-shaped base and thorns at the top; flowers are golden yellow with a wide obovate sail, blunt boat, concentrated 2-3 on single peduncles, which are twice as long as the calyx, pods up to 3 cm long, glabrous, cylindrical, 1-4 seeds.

Grows mainly on the western slope of the mountain, in the ravine and adjacent beam on the north side.

Nonea dark

Belongs to the borage family. The whole plant is covered with protruding stiff hairs and sparse glandular ones. The leaves are oblong-lanceolate, the lower ones are narrowed in petioles, the rest are sessile, semi-amplex. Bracts lanceolate, longer than flowers, dark red-brown. The calyx is bell-shaped, incised to one part. The lobes of the calyx are lanceolate. Nuts are reticulate-wrinkled.

It grows everywhere on the hill, it was studied and determined at the beginning of flowering.

Bell

Belongs to the bell family. Flowers numerous, in large branched inflorescence. Corolla funnel-shaped bell-shaped, blue or white. Stem with dense foliage. The leaves are large-serrate, glabrous or pubescent.

Grows in communities of studied plants between cereal plants. It is rare, there are only about 30 plants counted in the population.

Veronica longifolia

Belongs to the family Norichnikovye. The leaves are unequally serrated to the very top, with finely pointed,

Simple or to the base of the b.ch. double serrations, oblong or linear-lanceolate, acute at the base, heart-shaped or rounded, often whorled. The inflorescence is a terminal dense raceme, lengthening up to 25 cm, sometimes with several lateral racemes; flowers on pedicels, almost equal to calyxes. Corolla blue about 6 mm. Long, with a hairy tube inside. The whole plant is glabrous or with short grayish pubescence.

The distribution of this plant in the studied ecosystem is moderately rare. Grows as individual plants or 2-3 individuals.

Violet amazing

Belongs to the violet family. Stem up to 30 cm.

height. The petioles of large broad-heart-shaped stem leaves are grooved, pubescent only on the convex, downward-facing hairs. Stipules of stem leaves are large, entire, stipules are large, rusty-red.

On the hill grows in places with low grasses or among low grass cover, likes stony areas of the surface.

forest anemone

Ranunculaceae family. Perennial. Stem leaves not fused, similar to basal leaves, short-haired. Flowers are yellow-white.

It grows in small "families" between pine trees and separately on open slopes on the eastern and northern sides of the Roman-gora hill.

field bindweed

Belongs to the bindweed family. Naked or scattered drooping plant with recumbent, creeping or climbing shoots. Flowers up to 3.5 cm in diameter, usually collected in 2-3 or solitary. Bracts in the form of a pair of small linear leaflets are located oppositely in the middle of the pedicel, do not reach the calyx. Corolla pink, rarely white.

Grows in areas with others meadow plants from the side of the ravine and the river.

Onosma Preduralskaya

Belongs to the borage family. Pedicels very short, much shorter than the bracts. The whole plant is hard-rough. The stem is straight, simple, rarely branched, covered with stiff, erect bristles and dense down. Basal leaves are numerous, petiolate, linear, stem sessile, linear-lanceolate.

Likes open sunny places with rocky soil. Grows in crowded bushes. Very interesting during the flowering period. There are not many plants on the Roman-mountain hill on the south side. Numerical accounting showed about 20 plants.

Wormwood flat

Belongs to the Compositae family. The root is vertical, woody, developing branched flower-bearing shoots and straight ribbed reddening branched flower-bearing stems. Leaves of sterile shoots and lower stem leaves are twice-, thrice-pinnately dissected, their lobules are narrowly linear 3-10 mm long, slightly pointed, middle and upper stem leaves are sessile, bracts are short, narrowly linear. The outer leaflets of the involucre are oval, almost round, convex, green along the back, the inner ones along the edge are broadly membranous-marginated.

Well expressed as a cover plant on the southern slope of Roman-gora hill. Plants are smaller than usual, indicating oppression by grazing pressure.

Plants of the steppe zone

The VEGETATION of the steppes consists of various herbs that can tolerate drought. In some plants, the stems and leaves are strongly pubescent or have a developed wax coating; others have stiff stems covered with narrow leaves that curl up in the dry season (cereals); still others have fleshy and juicy stems and leaves with a supply of moisture. Some plants have a deep root system or form tubers, bulbs, rhizomes.

The steppe zone is one of the main land biomes. Under the influence, first of all, of climatic factors, zonal features of biomes were formed. The steppe zone is characterized by a hot and arid climate during most of the year, and in spring there is a sufficient amount of moisture, so the steppes are characterized by the presence of a large number of ephemera and ephemeroids among plant species, and many animals are also confined to a seasonal lifestyle, falling into hibernation in arid and cold season.

Steppe almond. Photo: Sirpa Tahkamo

The steppe zone is represented in Eurasia by the steppes, in North America by the prairies, in South America by the pampas, and in New Zealand by the Tussock communities. These are spaces of the temperate zone, occupied by more or less xerophilous vegetation. From the point of view of the conditions for the existence of the animal population, the steppes are characterized by the following features: a good overview, an abundance of plant food, a relatively dry summer period, the existence summer period rest or, as it is now called, semi-rest. In this respect, steppe communities differ sharply from forest communities. Among the predominant life forms of steppe plants, cereals stand out, the stems of which are crowded into turfs - turf grasses. In the Southern Hemisphere, such turfs are called Tussocks. Tussocks are very tall and their leaves are less rigid than those of the tufts of steppe grasses of the Northern Hemisphere, since the climate of communities close to the steppes of the Southern Hemisphere is milder.

Rhizome grasses that do not form turfs, with single stems on creeping underground rhizomes, are more widely distributed in the northern steppes, in contrast to turf grasses, whose role in the Northern Hemisphere increases towards the south.
Among the dicotyledonous herbaceous plants, two groups stand out - the northern colorful forbs and the southern colorless. Colorful forbs are characterized by a mesophilic appearance and large bright flowers or inflorescences, for southern, colorless forbs - a more xerophilic appearance - pubescent stems into leaves, often leaves are narrow or finely dissected, flowers are inconspicuous, dim.
Typical for the steppes are annual ephemera, which fade in the spring after flowering and die off, and perennial ephemeroids, in which, after the death of the ground parts, tubers, bulbs, and underground rhizomes remain. Colchicum is peculiar, which develops foliage in the spring, when there is still a lot of moisture in the steppe soils, retains only underground organs for the summer, and in autumn, when the whole steppe looks lifeless, yellowed, gives bright lilac flowers (hence its name).

The steppe is characterized by shrubs, often growing in groups, sometimes solitary. These include spireas, caragans, steppe cherries, steppe almonds, and sometimes some types of juniper. The fruits of many shrubs are eaten by animals.
Xerophilous mosses, fruticose and scale lichens, sometimes blue-green algae from the genus Nostok grow on the soil surface. During the summer dry period, they dry up, after rains they come to life and assimilate.

In the steppe there are plants that are rather nondescript, perhaps that is why they are unfamiliar to many: grits and daggers.

They appear among the first on dry ridges, sand mounds, hills and hills.

Krupka from the cruciferous family is most often found in the highlands and in the tundra. The total number of its species in our country reaches one hundred. The most common are Siberian grains (found in meadows, dry tundra, alpine and subalpine lawns almost throughout the country, including the Arctic and the mountain systems of Central Asia and Siberia), as well as oak grains (widely distributed, except for the Arctic, in fields, dry meadows and steppes). Outwardly, these grains are very similar to each other.

Krupka oakwood is an annual plant with a branched, leafy stem up to 20 centimeters tall, in the lower part of which there is a basal rosette of oblong leaves, and in the upper part there are loose tassels of yellowish flowers. It blooms in April-July. Chemical composition grains has been poorly studied, it is only known that alkaloids are contained in the aerial part. The plant was used in folk herbal medicine as a hemostatic agent along with the shepherd's purse. It is believed that the aerial part, together with the seeds, has an expectorant and antitussive effect, as a result of which it is used for whooping cough and various bronchial diseases. An infusion of herbs is popular as an external remedy for various skin diseases (rashes and others), especially those of allergic origin in children (while taking an infusion or a decoction of the herb externally and internally - as a blood purifier) ​​o In Chinese medicine, the seeds of the plant are popular, which are used as an expectorant and diuretic.

Krupka Siberian is a perennial with dark yellow flowers. Deserves, like the oak groats, study for medical purposes.
There are 35 species of primroses from the family of primroses in our country, distributed mainly in the mountains of the Caucasus, Central Asia and Siberia. The most common is the northern breakwort - a small, up to 25 centimeters, annual plant with a basal rosette of medium-sized oblong leaves and, as a rule, numerous, up to 20 pieces, flower arrows up to 25 centimeters high, each of which ends with an umbrella-shaped inflorescence, consisting of 10-30 tiny white flowers. There is a northern breakwater almost throughout the country - in the forest-steppe, steppe, forest and polar-arctic zones: on upland and steppe meadows, rocky slopes, in sparse pine and other forests, and he especially loves it. willingly occupies plowed clearings and deposits like a weed.

The plant has long been used in medicinal purposes the people of our country. Recently, medicine has been studying the possibility of obtaining contraceptive (contraceptive) drugs from it. The conducted studies have given nice results- the age-old folk experience of using the prolomnik was fully confirmed. It is believed that the prolomnik has anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties, its decoction or paste is used for leucorrhoea in women and gonorrhea in men, hernia and goiter, gastralgia, urolithiasis, especially widely - with sore throat (gargle and take it orally). Prolomnik is also known to be used as an anticonvulsant in epilepsy and eclampsia (seizures, including in children), as well as a diuretic and hemostatic agent.

The grits are oak. Photo: Matt Lavin

Tumbleweeds are a peculiar life form of steppe plants. To this life form include plants that break off at the root collar as a result of drying out, less often - rotting, and are carried by the wind across the steppe; at the same time, sometimes rising into the air, sometimes hitting the ground, they scatter the seeds. In general, the wind plays a significant role in the transfer of seeds of steppe plants. There are a lot of flying plants here. The role of the wind is great not only in the pollination of plants, but the number of species in the pollination of which insects take part is less here than in forests.

Features of steppe plants:

a) Small leaves. The leaves of steppe grasses are narrow, not wider than 1.5-2 mm. In dry weather, they are folded lengthwise, and their evaporative surface becomes even smaller (adaptation to reduce evaporation). In some steppe plants, leaf blades are very small (bedstraws, kachima, thyme, gerbils, saltworts), in others they are divided into the thinnest slices and segments (gills, adonis, etc.).
b) pubescence. A whole group of steppe plants creates a special "microclimate" for itself due to abundant pubescence. Many species of astragalus, sage and others, with the help of pubescence, are protected from sun rays and thus fight drought.
c) wax coating. Many use a layer of wax or other waterproof substance that is secreted from the skin. This is another adaptation of steppe plants to drought. It is possessed by plants with a smooth, shiny surface of the leaves: spurges, gills, Russian cornflower, etc.
d) The special position of the leaves. Avoiding overheating, some steppe grasses (naeolovaty, serpuhi, chondrils) place their leaves edge to the sun. And such a steppe weed as wild lettuce generally orients the leaves in vertical plane north-south, representing a kind of living compass.
e) Coloring. Among the summer steppe grasses, there are few bright green plants, the leaves and stems of most of them are painted in dull, faded colors. This is another adaptation of steppe plants that helps them protect themselves from excessive lighting and overheating (wormwood).
e) Powerful root system. The root system is 10-20 times larger than the above-ground organs in mass. There are many so-called soddy cereals in the steppe. These are feather grass, fescue, thin-legged, wheatgrass. They form dense tufts, having a diameter of 10 cm or more. Turf contains a lot of remnants of old stems and leaves and has a remarkable ability to intensively absorb thawed and rain water and hold it for a long time.
g) Ephemera and ephemeroids. These plants develop in the spring when the soil is sufficiently moist. Thus, they have time to fade and bear fruit before the onset of the dry period (tulips, irises, saffron, goose onions, adonis, etc.).

The term "steppe" has a very broad meaning. From the point of view of geobotany, the steppe is a collective concept, uniting the herbaceous vegetation of the watershed spaces of a more or less dry nature.

Steppes can cover flat watersheds (here they are almost completely destroyed), slopes, hills. There are flat, hilly, mountainous steppes. But the most typical for each region are upland steppes, which occupy relatively flat watershed spaces. Usually, the main characteristic of the vegetation of a zone is given precisely for such steppes.

When moving from north to south, the appearance of the steppes in upland conditions reveals regular changes, the analysis of which makes it possible to distinguish several subzones of steppe vegetation.

Within the forest-steppe zone, on treeless watersheds, in the past, forb-meadow Steppes were ubiquitous. We can now judge their composition by small islands of reserved steppes in the Central Black Earth region. Soils rich in humus and sufficient moisture contributed to the development of a high and dense grass cover here, creating continuous retention. In the herbage of these steppes, meadow-steppe forbs are especially abundant; in spring and early summer, it forms a bright, colorful carpet that changes color every now and then.

Among the grasses of this subzone, loose shrub and rhizomatous plants with relatively wide leaf blades predominate: coastal brome, meadow bluegrass, ground reed grass, steppe timothy grass. Of the feather grasses, only the most moisture-loving ones are found here, most often John's feather grass and narrow-leaved.

The forbs are dominated by meadow sage, tuberous gooseberry, meadowsweet, mountain clover, sandy sainfoin, forest anemone, mountain cutweed, sleep-grass, etc.

E. M. Lavrenko (1940) singled out two variants of forb-meadow steppes - northern and southern. A remarkable monument of the southern version of these steppes is the Streletskaya steppe under

Kursk, where V. V. Alekhin (1925) met up to 120 species in upland conditions on an area of ​​100 m 2, and 77 species per 1 m 2. summer, caused by alternating mass flowering of various types of herbs.

South of the forb-meadow steppes, a subzone of typical (or real) steppes extends. The vast majority of their herbage is made up of narrow-leaved turf grasses, mainly feather grass and fescue, which is why these steppes are called cereal, or feather grass. Among the feather grass, Lessing's feather grass and hairy feather grass predominate. In the south of Ukraine, in addition, Ukrainian feather grass is common, and in Northern Kazakhstan and Western Siberia - reddish feather grass.

Forbs in typical steppes play a subordinate role, as a result of which they are less bright and not as multicolored as more northern ones.

Soddy perennial grasses, which form the basis of the herbage of typical steppes, never create a continuous sodding of the soil. Between the tufts of cereals there are always patches of bare soil, the area of ​​which increases towards the south. The reason for the increasing thinning of the grass stand towards the south is the lack of moisture in the soils of the steppe zone. The root system of turf grasses itself has an extensive network of very thin roots near the surface, capable of trapping the moisture of the most insignificant summer precipitation.

The proportion of grasses in the herbage of typical steppes is very high. According to B. A. Keller (1938), in the feather grass steppes of the Central Chernozem region, cereals provide more than 90% of the total mass of hay. In the fescue-feather grass association of the Askania-Nova reserve, their specific gravity ranges from 79 to. 98% of the total plant mass. Numerous ephemera and ephemeroids find shelter between tufts of cereals. These include the common stonefly, different kinds goose onions, brightly blooming Schrenk and Bieberstein tulips.

In the life of typical steppes, the underground, root part of plants is of great importance. In the upper soil horizons, complexly branched underground parts of the plant community are located. At the same time, the plant mass of the underground part is much higher than that of the aboveground. So, in the grassy steppes of Askania-Nova, 1 g of living aerial parts accounts for 8 to 30 g of root mass. According to the studies of M.S. Shalyt (1950), from 37 to 70% of the entire root mass is concentrated here at a depth of 0 to 12 cm. However, the depth of root penetration is not limited to the humus horizon. The roots of tap-rooted perennials in the Askania-Nova steppes (for example, such as pyrethrum yarrow, some sedges) penetrate to a depth of 1.5-2.5 m.

Typical steppes, in turn, are divided into two main variants. In the northern part of the subzone, on ordinary and southern chernozems, forb-fescue-feather grass steppes (“colorful feather grass”) are common. In these steppes, gradually decreasing northern forbs (meadowsweet, sleep-grass, mountain clover) mix with drought-resistant forbs (steppe and drooping sage, narrow-leaved peony, crescent-shaped alfalfa, prickly thorn grass, many-flowered headweed, real and Russian bedstraws, noble yarrow). There are still relatively few ephemeroids here.

The Starobelskaya steppe in the basin of the Seversky Donets, studied back in 1894 by G.I. Tanfilyev, is considered to be the reference plots of forb-fescue-feather grass steppes.

Fescue-feather grass steppes (“colorless feather grass”) are developed on dark chestnut soils and partly on southern chernozems. On the Russian Plain, they do not have a continuous distribution and consist of several arrays. But to the east of the Volga, and especially beyond the Urals, they stretch in a wide strip. Fescue and southern species of feather grass dominate in these steppes. The forbs here are poor, very drought-resistant: hairy breast, Caspian ferula, fine-leaved yarrow, pyrethrum species. In spring, ephemeroids - tulips and goose onions - play an important role. Quite a lot in the band of fescue-feather grass steppes are solonetzes and solonetsous soils with fescue-wormwood and wormwood groups. The standard of the fescue-feather grass steppes of the Russian Plain is Askania-Nova. In other places to the west of the Volga, they practically did not survive anywhere. They have been preserved to the best extent in the Trans-Volga region, in the Southern Urals and in Kazakhstan.

To the east of the Volga, especially in Western Kazakhstan and the Trans-Urals, fescue (dry) steppes have developed. V. V. Ivanov (1958) considered them to be analogous to real turf-grass poor forb steppes.

The characteristic features of fescue steppes, which make it easy to distinguish them, are:

• the undivided dominance of the fescue, which is joined by the feather grasses of tyrsa, Lessing, Sarepta, occupying a clearly subordinate position;
• a sharp reduction in the role of forbs;
• the disappearance from the herbage of the flat steppe of the usual steppe shrubs of the bean, spirea and chiliga and their isolation in depressions;
• the appearance of xerophytic subshrubs (white wormwood, prostrate prostrate, millennial pyrethrum);
• weak alkalinity of soils or even its complete absence (Ivanov, 1958, p. 29).

Fescue, like other more northern types of steppes, are now almost completely plowed up. It can be said that their typical plain variants have now completely disappeared. Their structure can now be judged either by the geobotanical descriptions of old authors, or by the miserable patches of these steppes that have been preserved near the slopes.

To the south of the steppe zone (practically already in the semi-desert on chestnut, less often on dark chestnut soils), a subzone of desert wormwood-fescue-feather grass steppes is distinguished. In the herbage of the subzone, in addition to narrow-leaved turf grasses (fescue, wheatgrass, feather grass), there are many drought-resistant subshrubs: wormwood, saltwort, prutnyak. The herbage here is usually open. Complexity, spotting of vegetation cover is characteristic.

Studying these steppes, back in 1907, N. A. Dimo ​​and B. A. Keller (1907) introduced the concept of “semi-desert” into literature. Specifying it, Academician B. A. Keller (1923) wrote that semi-deserts should include “associations in which, with sparseness, short stature, and the like, along with steppe grasses - fescue, feather grass, thin-legged, such dry-loving semishrubs, like sea wormwood and cochia” (p. 147).

There was a lot of controversy regarding the allocation of a subzone of desert steppes or "steppe deserts". We mention them here only because the transition from steppes to deserts does not occur immediately, but gradually and sometimes surrounded by already real desert landscapes one can find steppe islands.

In general, when moving from north to south, the following regular changes in vegetation are observed, noted by VV Alekhin (1934) and his followers.

1. The herbage is thinning out more and more.
2. The brilliance of the steppes is greatly reduced, as the number of dicotyledonous plants is reduced.
3. In the north, perennials reign supreme, to the south, the role of annuals increases.
4. The number of broad-leaved grasses decreases, they are replaced by narrow-leaved ones.
5. There is a change in the types of feather grass - from large-turf to small-turf.
6. Species saturation decreases from 80 species per 1 m 2 in meadow steppes to 3-5 in desert steppes.
7. The seasonal dynamics of the vegetation cover of the steppe is becoming more and more arrhythmic. To the south, the spring burst of flowering is shortened.
8. The relative mass of the underground parts of plants in comparison with the above-ground parts increases towards the south.

It remains to add that the appearance of the steppes changes not only from north to south, but also to no lesser extent from west to east. The reason for this is the already mentioned increase in continentality towards the center of Eurasia. Suffice it to say that different types of feather grass grow in different sectors of the steppe belt (Ukrainian in the Black Sea region, red in Kazakhstan, Krylova in Khakassia, etc.).

Towards the center of the mainland, the species abundance of steppes is sharply reduced. So, in the meadow steppes of the Russian Plain, there are more than 200 species of grasses, in Western Siberia - 55-80, Khakassia - 40-50. The vegetation of the dry steppes of Askania-Nova in the Black Sea region is formed by 150 representatives of the grass cover, and in Khakassia - only 30-35 species.

However, on the basis of these comparisons, the inland steppes should not be considered depleted. It would be more correct to say that the European steppes are enriched with meadow herbs. We must judge the authenticity of the steppe by the participation in the grass cover of true steppe plants - xerophytes. Their share in the meadow steppes of the Southern Urals is about 60%, and near Kursk - only 5-12%.

The greater typicality and, consequently, the increased stability of steppe ecosystems inside the mainland compared with the outskirts can also be judged by the degree of development of root phytomass, one of the main indicators of the adaptability of vegetation to steppe conditions. The root reserves of steppe plants are steadily increasing towards the east. According to Siberian ecologists and landscape experts, in relation to the local steppes, the notorious question does not arise: “... is the forest advancing on the steppe, or vice versa” (Titlyanova et al., 1983). The positions of the steppe vegetation, represented to the east of the Urals by typical xerophytes with thick turfs, exclude the advance of the forest on the steppes. The steppes of the Russian Plain, with moisture-loving European forbs, are not so resistant to the forest.