Ecological Properties of Medicinal Plant of Hymenocrater calycinus (Boiss.) Benth. in north- eastern Khorasan, Iran

Abstract

<em>Hymenocrater calycinus </em>(Boiss.) Benth. is endemic to Iran and it is growing natural habitats in the north east of Iran. In traditional medicine, this plant use for flu treatment, diuretic, antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant. In order, this plant know ecological characteristic for introduce and dense cultivation on farm land and then use in medical industries. Such as this plant natural sites were controlled of destroying. This study was executed in rangeland of Bojnourd. In the site, the studies were climatically characteristic, stand type, co-dominant plant and vegetable variation, physical and chemical analyses of the soil. The results revealed that this species could be adapted for regions with semiarid- cold climate, annual rainfall average of 332 mm and annual temperature average of 9.82 c^°. This species have dispersed in altitude 1400- 2500 m of sea level in mountainous areas. The Soils physical and chemical analyses showed that the soil is very shallow with sandy-loom texture, Ph= 7.79, Ec= 55.97 µs/cm and lime. Principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that the variables of altitude, precipitation, saturation moisture percentage, pH, potassium, calcium and sand had significant correlations with the first axis and explained the 49.84% variation. For the second component, the percentage of organic matter and nitrogen were more important traits and explained the 27.94% variation. The stand type was<em> Artemisia aucheri- Phlomis cancellata </em>and the co-dominant plants were over 91 species. Average of canopy covers and density were 3.04% and 1778 shrubs in hectare respectively. The Results indicated that distribution pattern of <em>H. calycinus</em> is random in the region.