Urban flora of the city of Zhitikara (Republic of Kazakhstan, Kostanay region)

An abstract of flora of the city of Zhitikara (Northern Kazakhstan) is presented. The species composition was identified using the route method. For all species there is information on occurrence within the city limits, life form according to K. Raunkier and I.G. Serebryakov, zonal and longitude arealogical group, ecological group in relation to moisture and coenotic group. For adventitious species the information about the origin, the method of immigration, and the degree of naturalization achieved is also indicated. It was found that the flora of the city of Zhitikara is represented by 260 species of vascular plants belonging to 171 genera and 56 families. The largest families are Asteraceae, Poaceae, Fabaceae and Brassicaceae, and the largest genera Artemisia, Plantago, Silene, Medicago, Festuca and Potentilla. Polycarpathic herbs (138 species, or 52.6%) predominate in the spectrum of life forms in the urban flora of the city of Zhitikara, among which the rhizome (42 species, or 16%) and rod-root (49 species, or 18.7%) are most numerous. Of the coenotic groups, the largest is the group of steppe plants (86 species, or 32.8%). The adventitious and native fractions of the urban flora of Zhitikara are ditermined. Among the two florogenetic fractions, native plants (190 species) prevail over adventive plants (70 species). Among the native species, steppe and forest-steppe species with a wide distribution prevail European-West Asian, East European-West Asian and Eurasian. Two-thirds of adventitious species of intracontinental migrants are Eurasian and European-West Asian.