Flora and vegetation of the Minusinsk town and its vicinity

. The article demonstrates the results of studies about species composition of lichens, fungi, mosses and higher vascular plants found in the ribbon pine forests in the Minusinsk town and its vicinity. The article based on the original authors' herbaria. 62 basidial macromycetes, 80 lichens and 210 species of the higher vascular plants were found in the studied area. The plant communities and their dominant species were studied.


Introduction
The town of Minusinsk is an urban district, located in the southern part of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, in the center of the vast forest-steppe Minusinsk Hollow, on the right bank of the Yenisei River [1].
Every year the territory of the town of Minusinsk and its vicinity gets more and more exposed to anthropogenic influence. Forest communities serve as a recreation area for the residents, as well as a dumping ground. Surface fires are often happened in spring and summer. Meadow and steppe communities during the vegetation period are often serves as pastures and places for the wild medicinal plants gathering. These and other factors lead to the changes in the natural flora and vegetation. Therefore, it becomes necessary to study species composition of lichens, fungi, and higher vascular plants in the typical plant communities of the Minusinsk town and its vicinity.

Material and methods
Authors collected about 550 herbarium specimens of higher vascular plants, 180 lichens, and 60 mushrooms which were the base for the article. The collected herbarium materials were processed in the laboratories of Khakas State University named after N.F. Katanov with the use of binocular MBS-10, microscope "Biolan" and chemical reagents. Species were determined with the help of "Identification Guide to the Plants of the South of the Krasnoyarsk Territory" [2], "Flora of Siberia" [3], "Identification Guide to Lichens of the USSR" [4], "Identification Guide to Lichens of Russia" [5], "Nordic Lichen Flora" [6], "Flora of Fungi of Ukraine" [7,8], "Identification Guide to Fungi of Russia" [9], «Funga Nordica» [10], «Farbatlas der Basidiomyceten Colour Atlas of Basidiomycetes» [11], "Floras of Agaric Mushrooms of the Southern Part of the Krasnoyarsk Territory [12], "Mushrooms of the USSR" [13], "Fungi. Identification Atlas" [14].

Results and discussion
Vegetation cover of Minusinsk town and its vicinity is represented by a variety of different plant communities. Due to the synanthropization and degradation of vegetation cover in urban areas, the urban vegetation is divided into cultivated (park and garden complexes, lawns) and natural (steppes, forests, and meadows) [15]. The main types of green plantings in the town are parks, squares, street greenery, and common lands, while the natural vegetation on the territory of the town is preserved fragmentary and weakly represented in the residential area. The natural plant communities are more often found in the vicinity of Minusinsk, where they occupy large areas. Natural vegetation is comprised of true meadows, less often rocky steppes, valley meadows, forests (pine, birch, mixed birch-pine) and coppices.
The fescue-koeleria low-bunch steppes occupy the southern slopes. The edificators of formation are Koeleria cristata (L.) Pers. and The sedge low-bunch steppes are confined to the smooth parts of the lower southexposed slopes, occupying large areas on the plain, including the elevated sites of the river valleys. The main edificator is hardish sedge -Carex duriuscula. Potentilla anserine L., P. multifida L., Artemisia laciniata Willd., Scutellaria scordiifolia Fisch ex Schrank, Iris biglumis Vahl. are often found among the related plants.
The vegetation of stony grasslands or shrubby meadow-steppe is widespread on the tops of bare mountains and southern slopes. In certain places there are thickets of Caragana pygmaea or Spiraea hypericifolia L., S. media, Cotoneaster melanocarpus, Atrophaxis frutescens L.
Dry meadows occupy the high valley terraces. These meadows include the formations of Calamagrostis epigeios, Trifolium pretense, Sanguisorba officinalis L., Amori arepens, and others [16]. The typical representatives of fungi are Agaricus campestris L., Agrocybe praecox (Pers.) Favod, Scleroderma albidum Pat. & Trab., and others. Due to the lack of competitiveness, the lichens were not found in the meadows.
In the northeast, southeast, and a small area in the southwest of the town, there is Insky ribbon pine forest [17][18]  There are also poplar coppices along the tributaries of the Yenisei River and in the central part of the town. Tree layer mostly consists of Populus laurifolia Ledeb., while the herbaceous layer is presented by Stellaria graminea L., S. media (L.) Vill., Amoria repens, and others. There are only 2 species of lichens Xanthoria parietina (L.) Th. Fr. and Caloplaca cerina Th. Fr. The fungi species include Pleurotus ostreatus (Jacq.) P. Kumm. and Hemipholiota populnea( Pers.) Bon.