Artemisia pedemontana
Artemisia pedemontana Balb.
Asteraceae – Daisy family
Conservation status. Endangered [EN A4c; B1ab(iii,iv)+2ab(ii,v)]. BDA.
Morphology and biology. Caespitose, whitish-lanate perennial, mat-forming plant. Rhizome horizontal, with numerous densely leafy non-flowering shoots, often rooting in the nodes. Flowering stems 10–30 cm, ascending to erect. Leaves of the non-flowering shoots and lower cauline leaves petiolate, twice 3-fid to pinnatifid, petiolate; middle and upper cauline leaves smaller, pinnatifid, sessile. Capitula 3.5–4.0 mm in diameter, semispherical, 10–20, single or in a compound raceme or spike. Involucral bracts densely villous-lanate, obovate, rarely lanceolate, the inner obtuse, broadly scarious with a pale brown margin. Florets yellow. Achenes slightly compressed, glabrous. Fl. VI–VIII, fr. VIII–X. Wind pollination. Reproduction by seeds and rhizome shoots.
Habitats and populations. In dry rocky and stony places, on limestone. The subpopulations of the species participate in stony, steppe plant communities (Paeonio tenuifoliae – Kolerietum brevis). The subpopulations are small, with mosaic structure. The whole population of the species is anthropogenically fragmented in 4 major subpopulations with restricted areas. The size of the population has drastically decreased due to destruction of the species habitat. Within its whole area of distribution the populations of the species are small, occupying restricted areas.
Distribution in Bulgaria. Black Sea coast (northern – Kaliakra cape, Bolata, Rusalka, Balchishka Tuzla localities, Galata cape).
General distribution. S Europe (C Spain, Italy, E Romania, SE Ukraine).
Threats. Economic activities (agriculture, stock breeding, quarries, tourism, building of wind-powered generators); small sizes of the populations; low reproductive potential of the species; adaptation to a specific and relatively rare habitat.
Conservation measures taken. Protected by the national Biodiversity Act. Part of the localities are within the borders of Kaliakra Strict Nature Reserve. The occurrences of the species are within sites of the European ecological network Natura 2000 in Bulgaria.
Conservation measures needed. Study of the size and area of the populations, biology and ecology of the species; elaboration of an action plan for the species conservation and monitoring of its populations; conservation of seeds in seed genebanks.
References. Bozhilova & Tonkov 1984; Delipavlov et al. 1997.
Author: Chavdar Gussev
