Introduction
Artemisia absinthium commonly known as wormwood, is a medicinal and aromatic plant belonging to the Asteraceae family and the Artemisia genus. It is a perennial shrubby plant. This grows from 60 to 120 cm in height with a woody, hardy rosette and high bearing stem.The aerial parts of A. absinthium possess an extended history of use in folk medicine. In previous studies, it has been reported that A. absinthium possesses many pharmacological properties, mainly antibacterial, anti-parasitic, antiplasmodial, antidiabetic, hepatoprotective and neuroprotective properties. It is worth to note that the ethno pharmacological literature has supported the use of A. absinthium for muscle complications, antiseptic activity and relieving the signs of depression. Lychnis coronaria is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae. The literature study determines that different components of Lychnis coronaria have been utilized as a traditional medicine for healing different illnesses similar disease of inflamed wounds and heal cuts, leprosy, diarrhea, liver and lungs and also as a therapy for Beriberi. Decoction of the roots has been utilized for liver and lung disorders, and for infraction of the mesentery and the lymph glands. The herb extract was found to possess anti-inflammatory traits. Hot aqueous extract from the aerial parts of the herb has been utilized for the therapy of hemorrhoids. It is a perennial growing to 80 cm tall by 45 cm wide, with grey felted leaves and single, bright magenta flowers produced in succession around July. Though short-lived, the herb readily self-seeds in desirable places. It is sometimes grown as a biennial. Lychnis coronaria is a rare native species in the east of the Golestan Park of Iran. This species is apperceived from Darkesh in the west of the north Khorasan province. Plants contributes precious ecosystem services to different terrestrial ecosystems, such as soil conservation, protection of genetic resources, water resource regulation, fodder provide, and carbon sequestration. Survey of the spatial pattern of an herb population is useful to define the population’s biological attributes, ecological priority and relations with environmental agents. So, the survey of the spatial distribution pattern of herb populations has always been a main focus for environmental investigate. Spatial pattern survey of plants could be an important tools for stability, biodiversity, designing proper management plans, and Reclamation and Rehabilitation operations of terrestrial ecosystems. The spatial distribution pattern of herb populations represents scale dependency, e.g. a species can indicate a clumped distribution at one spatial scale and may modify to a random or regular distribution at a various scale. The purpose of this present survey were to evaluate spatial distribution patterns of Artemisia absinthium and Lychnis coronaria medicinal species in northwest rangelands of Bojnord.
Methodology
Goodali Salakh is a region located in the northwestern part of the city of Bojnord, which is a district of North Khorasan province. According to topographic maps (1:50000), this region covers an area of about 5300 hectares and has an elevation of 1200 to 1900 meters above sea level. Its geographical coordinates range from 57° 7' to 57° 15' east longitude and from 37° 32' to 37° 36' north latitude. To determine the annual precipitation, annual temperature, and climate type of the studied region, the gradients of precipitation and temperature of nearby stations at different elevations were used. The average annual precipitation in the region is 295 millimeters. Monthly precipitation in the area shows that the highest rainfall occurs in April with 55.6 millimeters and the lowest rainfall occurs in July with 6 millimeters. The annual average temperature in this region is 11.28°C. The average maximum temperature is 26.1 °C in July and minimum temperature is
-6.8 °C in January. According to the Emberger method, the climate of the region is considered as semi-cold and semi-arid. Based on the Embrothermic diagram, the dry period in the study area starts from late April and ends in early November, while the wet period lasts for about 205 days.
In the present research, Vegetation sampling was done by systematic-random method, so, 5 transects of 100 meters were selected in each working unit. To collect information from the habitat, the nearest species and nearest neighbor distance method was used. Finally, Evaluation was done by using distance indices of Eberhardt, Hines, Pielou, T-square, Hopkins, Holgate and Johnson and Zimmer and the findings were tested at 5% level.
Results
Based on the results of this study, the Eberhardt, Johnson, Zimmer and Holgate indicators showed a clumped pattern of A. absinthium in the study sites. While the Hopkins and Pielou indices showed a regular pattern for this species in the study sites. The T-square index confirmed the spatial distribution pattern of random with a tendency toward clumped and Hines index was random. Also, based on the findings obtained from the Lychnis coronaria in habitat, the distance indices of Eberhardt, Pielou, Holgate, Johnson and Zimmer, T-square and Hines showed a clumped pattern. While the Hopkins index introduced the spatial pattern in a random with tendency to be clumped.
Conclusion
In conclusion, in this survey, the findings indicated that most of the investigated indicators accepted the clumped distribution pattern, so it can be said that the spatial distribution pattern of Artemisia absinthium and Lychnis coronaria is clumped in the study sites. Based on the results obtained from the study of other researchers, the clumped type is the most commonly observed plants spatial pattern in natural ecosystems. The major reasons that can lead to a clumped pattern in a population of plant species are the attributes of the plant, the relationship between them, and with the environmentally changes. There are three types of spatial distributions for herbs in nature, as follows, clumped distribution, random distribution and regular distribution. The spatial pattern of herb populations is a plenary reflectance of the phenotypic plasticity and life past strategies of herb populations under the efficacy of intraspecific and interspecific relationships. In general, the utilization of herb distribution patterns plays a main role in choosing the appropriate sampling technique, stability, biodiversity, designing proper plans, Reclamation and Rehabilitation, ecological interpretations and providing management approaches.