Geographic distribution of Astragalus in Iran

The geographic distribution of Astragalus (Fabaceae) in Iran was analyzed using a database of ۷۶۰۶ georeferencedobservations. Astragalus occurs in all provinces of Iran, but ۸۸% ofthe observations are in five provinces including Tehran, West-Azerbaijan, Esfahan, Kordestan, and Khorasan-e Razavi.Most species are rare and narrowly endemic: Thelargest distance between two observations of the same species for ۴۵۱ speciesis Astragalus, ۲۶۹ selected cells are enough. High species richnessoccurs only in northern half of country especially in north-west of the Iran. Regions with high richness include Central-Alborz Mountain in north, North-Zagros Mountain in west, Mountain of north-west corner of Iran, and Khorasan-Kopet Dagh Mountain in North-East. The highestnumber of species in a grid cell (۴۳ species) occurs in Avaj between Qazvin and Hamedan.Astragalus species occur between ۳۰° N and ۳۸° N. Astragalus species widely distributed in mountainous regions especially between ۱۰۰۰ and ۳۰۰۰ m altitude.

Keywords:

Fabaceae , Geographic Information Systems (GIS) , Species richness , Grid distribution map , Ecology , Iran