Phytocenotic relationships of the rare species Carex brizoides L. (Cyperaceae) at the eastern limit of its range

The article analyzes data on the habitat characteristics of the relict European species Carex brizoides, its association with certain types of plant communities, and its requirements for environmental conditions. The phytocoenotic connections of the species at the eastern boundary of its range largely resemble those within the species' more remote western coenoarea. The species is most closely associated with fresh soils on which oak (including hornbeam) and pine-oak acidophylous forests are formed, and with damp substrates in the valleys of forest rivers and streams with hygromesophylous and hygrophylous black alder forests. The species actively disperses to the subcontinental part of Europe in secondary forest habitats. It is impossible to draw a clear conclusion about the polemochoric origin of C. brizoides in the study area, since the species’ range in Eastern Europe does not have significant disjunctions, and its expansion to the east may be associated with both anthropogenic impact and climatic trends.