Plant species diversity in the Mount Falakro grasslands of the Natura 2000 network

Plant diversity of Falakro mountainous grasslands has a special interest. This is the reason that it was included in Natura 2000 network. Plant diversity was measured during spring, summer and autumn of 2003. The Hellenic Ministry of Environment, Physical planning and Public Works funded the research in the framework of Protection of Environment and Sustainable Development. Measurements were taken in 47 plots, distributed all over the mountainous grasslands, with an area of 25m2. The abundance of species was assessed and the Shannon-Wienner index was estimated. The data analysis showed that plant diversity in spring was very low. Even lower diversity and locally limited appeared in autumn. On the contrary, high diversity was recorded during summer, without being significantly different among various sites.