Geographic distribution of Astragalus in Iran

Abstract

The geographic distribution of <em>Astragalus</em> (Fabaceae) in Iran was analyzed using a database of 7606 georeferencedobservations. <em>Astragalus</em> occurs in all provinces of Iran, but 88% ofthe observations are in five provinces including Tehran, West-Azerbaijan, Esfahan, Kordestan, and Khorasan-e Razavi.Most species are rare and narrowly endemic: Thelargest distance between two observations of the same species for 451 speciesis Astragalus, 269 selected cells are enough. High species richnessoccurs only in northern half of country especially in north-west of the Iran. Regions with high richness include Central-Alborz Mountain in north, North-Zagros Mountain in west, Mountain of north-west corner of Iran, and Khorasan-Kopet Dagh Mountain in North-East. The highestnumber of species in a grid cell (43 species) occurs in Avaj between Qazvin and Hamedan.<em>Astragalus </em>species occur between 30° N and 38° N. <em>Astragalus </em>species widely distributed in mountainous regions especially between 1000 and 3000 m altitude.