BRYOPHYTE FLORA ON THE NORTHERN SLOPES OF ZLATAR MOUNTAIN (SOUTHWEST SERBIA)

This work presents a contribution to knowledge of the bryophyte flora of Zlatar Mountain. A total of 127 taxa from 35 families were identified. The hepatics are represented by 18 and mosses by 109 taxa. Representatives of the Holarctic distribution type and the temperate floristic category are highly present the investigated area.


INTRODUCTION
Floristic and phyto-cenological examinations in Southwest Serbia have been conducted since the beginning of the 20th century.In previous studies on the regional flora (K o š a n i n , 1908,1909; Č e r n j a v s k i , 1929; P a v l o v i ć , 1951), there are very few data on bryophytes.More intensive bryological investigations in this area were initiated in the 1990's (Ve l j i ć and M a r i n , 1997; Ve l j i ć et al., 2001a, 2001b; Ve l j i ć et al., 2004; P a p p and E r z b e r g e r , 2005; Ve l j i ć et al., 2006).
Zlatar Mountain is located in the southwestern part of Serbia, in the region of Stari Vlah and Raška.It extends 23 km from southeast to northwest and is 3 km wide.The altitude varies from 450 m in Bistrica to 1,650 m in the Veliki Krš area.The geological base is made up of massive calcareous rocks, marly calcareous rocks with quartz, sands, and clay.The pedological substratum consists of brownized soil on calcareous rocks, rendzina and brownish rendzina on quartz, and brownized skeleton soil on sands.The climate is of the humid temperate continental type with average annual precipitation of 850 mm and average temperature of 7.4°C.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The material was collected from April 1998 until April 2001.Sampling was performed at twelve selected points on the northern slopes of Zlatar Mountain (Map 1).Material was collected from the following points: 1. Gačevo Spring, 2. Zlošnica Brook (500 m downstream from Gačevo Spring), 3. Zlošnica Brook (mouth of the Vukovac), 4.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
At the researched localities, 127 bryophyte taxa were recorded (Table 1).The liverworts are represented by 18 and mosses by 109 taxa.Representatives of 35 families are recorded, the most numerous being Brachytheciaceae, with six genera and 19 species; Hypnaceae, with nine genera and 12 species; and Pottiaceae, with seven genera and 11 species; Amblystegiaceae, with eight genera and 10 species; and Mniaceae, with three genera and 9 species.The genera Brachythecium, Bryum, and Plagiomnium are present with the highest number of species (six and five, respectively).Schistidium apocarpum var.apocarpum was recorded at 11 localities.Other very frequent species are: Hypnum cupressiforme var.cupressiforme, Plagiomnium undulatum, and Abietinella abietina (eight localities); and Brachythecium rutabulum, Plagiomnium rostratum, Syntrichia ruralis subsp.ruralis, and Tortella tortuosa (seven localities).Sixty-seven taxa were recorded at just one locality.
Diversity of the bryophyte flora is very great in the investigated area; the bryologically poorest was locality 2 (eight taxa), and the most diverse bryophyte flora was recorded at locality 10 (52 taxa).Analysis of bryophyte distribution types (D ü l l et al., 1999) showed taxa with the Holarctic distribution type to be the most numerous (60%), while the rest were species with cosmopolitan (sub-cosmopolitan included) and European-Asiatic distribution (Fig. 2).
Ecological analysis included the following parameters: humidity, light, substratum type, and substratum pH.With respect to humidity as an ecological parameter, mesophilous species were present with the highest percentages (mosses with 47.2% and liverworts with 8.9%).The rest were mostly xerophilous, hygrophilous, and heliophilous species (Fig. 3).It is known that mosses are most diverse and most numerous in shade.In our examinations, most of the species found were skiophilous (52.8%).
All of the 18 liverwort taxa were skiophilous (Fig. 4).Most of the taxa (41.6%) were ones that prefer soil as substratum, followed by rocks and bark.However, the liverworts were forms that prefer rocks (5.6%) over other substrata (Fig. 5).The observed diversity was determined by substratum acidity; the greatest number of taxa were indifferent (Fig. 6), while almost the same number prefered limestone (28.4%) acidophilous (27.6%) substrates.

Table 1 .
List of taxa with locality number(s) where taxa were recorded.