The use of some natural plant species from the Western Black Sea region of Turkey for landscape design

Abstract

Plant materials have an essential importance in landscape architectural applications. The use of locally natural-growing plants is generally useful, and provides facilities in the selection of plant material. The research for this work was performed in Bartin, Karabuk and Zonguldak, located in the Western Black Sea region of Turkey. In this region, two parts of Karabuk, named Keltepe and Yenice, have the richest natural vegetation. In this study, 101 woody and 417 herbaceous (a total of 518) plant species in landscape architecture have been investigated. Shape and colour of the flower, blossoming time and its duration, have been observed. In addition, each plant type was evaluated separately for its possible use in landscape planning for the investigated area. A total of 92 of the investigated plants were collected for the first time and identified as new species. The plant species which are naturally distributed in the floral regions are 104 Euro-Siberian; 61 Mediterranean Element; 34 Euxine; 96 Widespread; 7 Hyrcano-Euxine; 8 Irano-Turanien; and 210 unknown species. Here, the Compositae family showed the highest number of genera (41) and species (66), respectively. From 11 endemic plants with defined landscape value, the species Dianthus setisquamosus, Dianthus kastembeluensis, Centaurea cadmea, Centaurea kilaea, and Centaurea inexpectata were at the top, but the other endemic species should also be taken as being valuable for planting Later on, the use of Cardamine sp., Silene sp., Tamarix sp., Pterocarya fraxinifolia, Cercis siliquastrum, Origanum sp., Muscari sp. and Cyclamen sp. in landscape regulations should be provided.