Forest vegetation north-western part of the Lesser Caucasus

Life forms, a range of leaf sizes, ethnobotany and a description of the floristic features of plants common in the North-Western forests of the Lesser Caucasus are presented in the paper. The studies were carried out in 2018-2020 on the territory of the forests of the Dashkesan and Goygol districts of the Azerbaijan Republic, which are part of the Lesser Caucasus, biodiversity was studied and the population was interviewed using generally accepted methods. Data about various life forms of local plants and their leaf size spectra are presented. 125 plant species belonging to 40 families have been identified, of which the Rosaceae family (48 species) and Poaceae (20 species) are predominant. Some plants are used to make medicines, food, feed, fuel, furniture, and housing as shown results. For this reason, forests are used in an integrated manner and vegetation is rapidly declining due to deforestation. The data for the protection of the rich vegetation in this area was taken from primary sources. The terrestrial flora is dominated by megaphanerophytes, followed by therophytes. Hemicryptophytes, nanophanerophytes and geophytes are less common in local forests respectively. The vegetation cover is formed depending on the availability of trees. Microphylls and megaphylls dominate in the spectra of leaf sizes.