SOME WILD PLANTS IN THE CIRENCESTER NATURAL FLORA

This study was carried out to survey wild flora (on herbaceaus plants and some shrubs) around the town of Cirencester in the summer of 2013. The purpose of the study was to categorise wild species and provide a review of the most frequent plants available based on their role in the human environment. In the survey, 32 families, 96 genuses and a total of 126 species were identified. According to number of genus, the top 5 families were Asteraceae 20 genus (21.5%), Poaceae 13 (14.0%), Fabaceae 8 (8.6%), Apiaceae, Lamiaceae, Polygonaceae and Rosaceae 4 (4.3%) and Brassicaceae and Plantaginaceae 3 (3.2%). According to number of species, top 5 families were Asteraceae 27 (21.4%), Poaceae 17 (13.5%), Fabaceae 12 (9.5%), Lamiaceae 7 (5.6%) and Polygonaceae 6 (4.8%). Genuses were ranked according to number of species: Circium and Trifolium 4; Sonchus, Lamium, Poa and Rumex 3; Chenopodium, Matricaria, Senecio, Sinapis, Vicia, Stachys, Malva, Fumaria, Plantago, Veronica, Alopecurus, Festuca, Lolium and Urtica 2, and other genus have 1 species. Grouped according to their status 105 least concern plants, 9 rare and scarce plants, 4 vulnerable plants, 1 endemic plant and 1 near threatened plant were determined. According to life-style, the survey determined that among all of the identified taxa there were 66 perennial, 42 annual, 6 biennial, 5 annual-biennial, 5 biennial-perennial and 2 annual-biennial-perennial. Ranking species in terms of purpose and status identified 103 weeds, 64 medicinal plants, 55 poisonous plant, 28 invasive plants, 26 forage crops and 9 ornamental plants.