Floristic novelties in the Republic of Altai

In the Republic of Altai, there are about 7 thousand lakes with a total area of more than 600 km² and most of them are practically unexplored. Despite the fact that botanical research has been carried out on the territory of the Republic of Altai for a rather long period and generalizing works have been published, the aquatic flora of the region has not been fully studied. This work presents a processed part of the data on floristic findings obtained during hydrobotanical research in lakes of the Altai Mountains. We completed the fieldwork in the first half of July 2018. 12 lakes located in Ust-Kanskii, Ongudayskii, Ulaganskii and Kosh-Agachskii districts, as well as several small roadside water bodies were surveyed by the route method using an inflatable boat. In the course of the work, we used hydrobotanical cat-rakes, a portable Garmin eTrex Vista navigator (with a GPS receiver), and a Pentax waterproof camera. Mineralization measurements were carried out in the surface layer of water using a Hanna HI 98130 portable conductometer-thermometer-pH meter. To determine the plants, we used an Altami PS0745-T stereoscopic microscope with a camera. Herbarium specimens were transferred to the NSK Herbarium of the Central Siberian Botanical Garden of the Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences. During our hydrobotanical reseach on a number of water bodies of the Altai Republic, we discovered five species that had not been previously indicated for this region. Utricularia macrorhiza Le Conte. Localities: 1) Ust-Kanskii district, environs of Ust-Kan village, the Kan river floodplain, 50°56'50.64''N. 84°48'25.49''E, 04 VII 2018, forms communities (see Fig. 1); 2) in the same place, 7 km east of the village of Ust-Kan, lake Yaboganskoye. 50°55'33.67"N 84°52'47.85''E, mineralization 0.34 g/dm³, 05 VII 2018, forms communities; 3) in the same place, 2 km north-west of Oro village, Bolshaya Shiverta river, 50°55'33.95''N 84°58'35.64''E, mineralization 0.31 g/dm³, 05 VII 2018, forms communities, NSK0084776; 4) Ongudayskii district, Tenginskoye lake, 50°55'59.39''N 85 ° 33'44.32''E, mineralization 0.19 g/dm³, 06 VII 2018, forms communities; 5) Kosh-Agachskii district, lake Bolshoye, 49°59'27.10''N 88°35'23.10''E, 12 VI 2018. Ranunculus subrigidus W.B. Drew. Localities: 1) Ulaganskii district, pond of the unfinished Chuya hydroelectric power station, 50°15'11.80"N 87°39'42.63''E, mineralization 0.08 g/dm³, 10 VII 2018; 2) Kosh-Agachskii district, Kosh-Agach village, in a lake without a name, 50°15'10.6''N 87°39'47.5''E, 13 VII 2018; 3) in the same place, lake Presnoe, depth 20 cm, forms a community, 49°59'2.75'N 88°34'53.30''E, mineralization 0.14 g/dm³, 11 VII 2018, NSK0084774; 4) in the same place, lake Bolshoye, 12 VII 2018. Lemna turionifera Landolt. Localities: 1) Ust-Kanskii district, lake Bukalu, 50°57'54.04"N 84°46’46.75''E, mineralization 0.45 g/dm³, 05 VII 2018; 2) Kosh-Agachskii district, lake Presnoe, 49°59'6.49''N 88°34'53.19''E, mineralization 0.14 g/ dm³, 11.VII 2018, NSK0084775; 3) in the same place, lake Bolshoye, 49°59'27.10'N 88°35'23.10''E, 12 VII 2018. Zannichellia repens Boenn. Localities: 1) Ust-Kanskii district, quarry near the road, depth 40 cm, in Chara vulgaris L. community, 50°56'33.26'N 85°01'14.55"E, mineralization 0.43 g/dm³, 06 VII 2018; 2) Ongudayskii district, ditch by the road, 50°47'22.34"N 85°21'33.05"E, forms a community, depth 20 cm, viscous clay, mineralization 0.88 g/dm³, 06 VII 2018, NSK0084778. Stuckenia chakassiensis (Kaschina) Klinkova. Localities: 1) Kosh-Agachskii district, an unnamed lake by the road, 49°57’14.33''N 88°43’49.41''E, mineralization 2.7 g/dm³, 12 VII 2018, NSK0084777; 2) in the same place, lake Solyenoye, 49°58’58.07''N 88°34’18.85''E, mineralization 0.75 g/dm³, 11 VII 2018. Thus, the list of flora of the Republic of Altai was replenished with five more species Utricularia macrorhiza, Ranunculus subrigidus, Lemna turionifera, Zannichellia repens and Stuckenia chakassiensis. We found the first three species in fresh waters, and Z. repens and S. chakassiensis in brackish waters. All these findings supplement information on the distribution of these species in Siberia. Utricularia macrorhiza, Ranunculus subrigidus and Lemna turionifera are predominantly American-Asian species, Stuckenia chakassiensis is, mainly, an Asian one. The paper contains 1 Figures and 21 References. Acknowledgments: We would like to express our gratitude to the staff of the group for digitizing the herbarium of the Central Siberian Botanical Garden, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (NSK, USU_440537) PhD Nataliya Kovtonyuk and Lyalya Lukmanova for the prompt registration of herbarium specimens. The authors are grateful to Andrey Kipriyanov for his assistance in expeditionary work. The Authors declare no conflict of interest.

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