Supplement to the flora of tugai forests and adjacent deserts of the Ile-Balkhash region

Abstract

Based on the results of long-term research by the authors, and taking into account the analysis of literary data, we provide an addition to the desert flora of the Ile-Balkhash region, which includes 86 species from 69 genera and 31 families. Among the most interesting finds are Gagea jensii Levichev & Schnittler, first discovered in Kazakhstan; Allium subscabrum (Regel) RM Fritsch, a recently described narrow-local endemic of the Ili deserts; as well as four species listed in the Red Book of Kazakhstan. The article considers the unstable ecological situation in the surveyed region and the related changes in the species composition of higher plants, we recommend carrying out floristic monitoring of the most vulnerable plant communities, the tugai forests of the Ili River valley, and of the aquatic and semi-aquatic communities of the delta.