Kanitzia 18. - NYME Természettudományi Kar - Nyugat ...

at the NE part of the village, situated geographically at the south-eastern marginal/border
area of the Transylvanian Lowland (cca 20 km NW of the town Tg. Mureş). In this area
only fragmentary forest steppe habitats are present, distributed in particular site conditions
of the nemoral zone, bordering the mixed oak and the oak-hornbeam woodlands. The hill
’Şico’ with a narrower pinnacle surface (summit/peak) and steep slopes with southern and
south-western exposition, completed by clay, marle and sandy deposites, is actually being
covered mostly by shrub vegetation, small vineyard plots, old hayfields and abandoned
grasslands. The peculiar stands of K. ceratoides are concentrated around the pinnacle region,
under the top with sunny and dry places, and the immediate neighboured slopes with
low inclination values, covered by Stipa capillata and partially by Bothriochloa ischaemum
dry grasslands. Very often small populations of K. ceratoides can be found just inside of
the shrub vegetation (ex. Pruno spinosae-Crataegetum) also, which indicate that the population
probabily have been widespred previously. The most frequently woody species which
form natural stands here are the followings: Quercus petraea, Q. robur, Crapinus betulus,
Acer campestre, A. tararicum, Fraxinus excelsior, Ulmus minor, Staphylea pinnata, Corylus
avellana, Ligustrum vulgare, Berberis vulgaris, Clematis vitalba, Crataegus monogyna,
Prunus spinosa, Rosa canina, Pirus pyraster, Viburnum lantana etc. Under the hill Şico it
is an old, abandoned clay-pit place, covered mostly with a high density of Lycium barbarum,
where the plants of K. ceratoides have been disappeared.
Coenological relations
Krascheninnikovia ceratoides with a wide holartic distribution area, is also an important
component of various cold steppe, semi-desert, dry grassland vegetation and open
vegetation unites. The species history, the chorological succes, all former and recent data
are evidencing that this taxon is an example of large adaptability to various coeno-ecological
conditions. In Central Asia coenotic stands are the main components of the continental
cold steppe plant community described as Eurotio ceratoidis-Zygophylletum xanthoxylii
by Hilbig (1987) 1990 (HILBIG 2000, WESCHE et al. 2005) from the Caraganion leucophloeae
alliance; from the southwestern Mongolian Khod Province the plant was indicated
as common participant in the shrub desert steppe vegetation (Caragana
leucophloea-Krascheninnikovia ceratoides type) (ZEMMRICH 2008, UNIYAL et al. 2005),
and relatively rare in the grass desert steppe vegetation (Stipa glareosa-Agropyron cristatum-Stipa
krylovii type) (ZeMMRICH 2008). In the Pamir Mountains the species is widespread
in the Krascheninnikovia ceratoides-Artemisia skorniakowii mountain-desert steppe
vegetation type (WALTER 1966). In Central Anatolia it have been noted as characteristic
species of the plant community of Krascheninnikovio ceratoidis-Artemisietum santonici,
distributed on eroded gypsaceous soils of the steppe vegetation (AYDOGDU et al. 1994,
AKMAN et al. 1994).
Inside of the European disjunct area, in Lower Austria K. ceratoides is a participant
of the fragmentary steppic grasslands and, it was considered as a „loes relict” plant
(WENDELBERGER 1954, NIKLEFELD 1964), belonging to the Astragalo excapi-Crambetum
tatarici plant community (MUCINA et al. 1993). Nearly in the same conditions in Central
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