Evaluation of the natural geophyte taxa of Sarıyer (Istanbul) and their use in urban landscape

Abstract

Within approximately 5461 km2area and 16 million population, Istanbul is considered to be the most important andmost crowded city of Turkey. In addition to its unique beauties, it attracts the attention of nature lovers and plantscientists especially with its rich variety of plants which is more than many other countries in the world. 7,2 % of thisfloristic richness is composed of “geophytes”; which are the plants with bulbous, tuberosus, corm or rhizomous rootsystems. Sarıyer district, which is located in the north side of Istanbul and being an important part of the city'sfloristic richness has been chosen as the study area. The floristic diversity of the district is mostly because of thebiodiversity of natural forest called Belgrad Forest. In this study, investigating the geophytes of the Sarıyer district,one of the greenest districts of Istanbul, evaluating their aesthetic properties and examining the possibilities of theiruse in landscape designs is aimed. For this purpose, plant features and design characteristics, habitats andendangerment categories of Sarıyer geophytes have been studied in detail using various sources. As a result of thisstudy; it is found that there has been 44 native genus and 98 exotic geophyte taxa belonging to 12 families. 27,27 %of the genera are belong to Orchidaceae family and it is followed by Amaryllidaceae family with 18,18 %. Also thegeophytes in the study are mostly having tuberous root type with 38,78%. When the habitats of these taxa has beenevaluated; forest, forest edge areas and shrubs has been found to be the highest rate of 19,85% and 19,73%. Whenwe evaluate the geophyte taxa of Sarıyer in case of their use in landscape designs, their flower colors, floweringperiods and textures has become important. In Sarıyer district mostly white and yellow flowering geophyte taxa hasbeen found with 21,43% and 20,41% ratio. It is also seen that most of the geophyte taxa are flowering in March with23,96% and most of them are 3 months flowering. Also most of them are found to be fine textured with 59,18%