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Iris ruthenica Ker.- Gawl.
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This species which is quite common in the Carpathians and their surrounding hills has two odd disjunctions. First, though it is common in the Romanian Carpathian area it is encountered nowhere else in the whole Europe. Instead, it has a totally isolated range in Central Asia, in the Siberian boreal forest-steppe where it is such an important species that it defines an entire class of vegetation (Irido-Betuletea). Second, in Romania it is found as a frequent species in the grasslands and mesoxeric forests from the lower nemoral belt, sometimes in the mesic grasslands associated with birch woodlands in the upper nemoral belt; also the same species can be found as a subalpine element in the calcareous massifs of the Carpathians. It is quite clear that Iris ruthenica is a relic from the last Glacial Age when cold steppe and forest-steppe vegetation covered Central Europe. With the warming of the climate the species got retired in the available grasslands from the forest-steppe areas, in the open dry woodlands, in the birch open woodlands from the mountains (as it lives now in the Siberial boreal forest-steppe) and in the cold subalpine grasslands from the calcareous mountains.Floresti, in Bungard forest of Downy Oak, Cluj county, 5-6 May 2006 dr. Alexandru Badarau, alexandru@transsilvanica.com
Cozia Mountains, Valcea county, May 2005. dr. Alexandru Badarau, alexandru@transsilvanica.net
Cozia mountainous massif, Valcea county, May 2005. dr. Alexandru Badarau, alexandru@transsilvanica.net
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