The paper specifies the species composition of urban flora of Shymkent city, assessment of the level of its synantropization is given as well.

 Growth of cities and city population is accompanied by cardinal transformations of the landscape system; firstly, flora and vegetable life are considerably changed. Investigation of peculiarities of city flora, revealing rules of urban florogenesis, tendencies of anthropogenic transformation of flora are remained one of non-studied trends of floristics and ecology.

Ecosystem is being fundamentally changed under the influence of the process of urbanization in cities. The components of the ecosystems are also changing: soil, water, air, flora, fauna, and etc. Accordingly, investigation of urban flora, as one of important components of urbanized ecosystems, is a subject of ecological science in Kazakhstan until the present time remained unstudied problem. If to consider that Kazakhstan is an arid country in majority of own area, investigation of urban flora is of special urgency.

Shymkent is an oblast centre of the South Kazakhstan Oblast, a third city of Kazakhstan according to the number of population, one of major industrial, trade, and cultural centres of the country. Geographic coordinates of Shymkent (WGS84): latitude: 42° 18' 0" N (42.3), longitude: 69° 36' 0" Е (69.6). It was founded in the 12th century, the area 347 km², the type of climate is Mediterranean, continental.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The routing investigations have covered various ecotopes of Shymkent (cities, auto- and railroads, city lawns, dumps, children's playgrounds, sports centers, residential areas and urban green belts). Herbary material has been gathered within the whole vegetation period, one and the same places have been visited repeatedly for maximum complete collection of herbary samples.

RESULTS AND THEIR DISCUSSION

The species composition of the urban flora of Shymkent city involves 664 species of wood, shrubby, and herbaceous plants relating to 333 species and 87 families. The composition of urban flora is represented by 3 parts of vascular plants: Equisetophyta, Pinophyta, Magnoliophyta. The composition of flora is covered by angiospermous - 97.74% of the total number of species -Liliopsida is represented by 15.21%, Magnoliopsida - 82.53% from total number of families  [Sikhimbayeva S.М., 2005].

The proportion of largest species of families of Poaceae takes 37, Fabaceae - 30, Asteraceae - 26, Rosaceae - 24, Brassicaceae - 18, Apiaceae - 14, Boraginaceae  and  Lamiaceae -  11, it is explained by high degree of violation of urban flora structure.

Rosaceae (84 species), Poaceae (63 species), Fabaceae (54 species), Asteraceae (39 species) take leading position in the range. Increase of the role of Rosaceae is explained by regular participation of aliens in city flora which relates to this family.

The comparative analysis of leading families of flora of Shymkent city was provided with the flora of the South Kazakhstan Oblast [Aralbayev N.К., and others, 2005], West Tien Shan [Pavlov V.N., 1980] and the Kazygurt Mountains [Sikhymbayev А.Е., 2003], since no investigation of urban flora of cities was available in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Brassicaceae (25 species), Lamiaceae (19 species), Boraginaceae (18), Apiaceae (18), Polygonaceae (17), Caprifoliaceae (16), Oleaceae (14), Scrophulariaceae (13), Caryophyllaceae (13), Aceraceae (13 species) also take high position in urban flora, the family of Asteraceae loses its position (4th in Shymkent, 1st place in the region). Besides, the first ten of large families of urban flora of the city do not include the family of Liliaceae, Ranunculaceae, which witnesses synantropization [Terekhina Т.А., 2000] of vegetative cover of Shymkent city.

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3 Pavlov V.N. Vegetative cover of West Tien Shan. – М.: MGU, 1980. – 246 p.

4 Sikhymbayev А.Е. Abstract of flora of the Kazygurt Mountains.–Shymkent, 2003.–121 p.

5 Terekhina Т.А. Anthropogenic phytosystems. – Barnaul: Publishing house of Altai, 2000. – 250 p.