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Kasf forest, with an area of over 12 ha, running in the east-west direction and located at a distance of 20 kilometers in the north of the city of Bardaskan in a mountainous arid region. The minimum and maximum temperature of the area ranges between -10° C and +45° C. The average annual precipitation of the region is 155 mm.  The altitude of the forest is about 1600 m above sea level with a 15% slope. The vegetation of this forest was studied using floristic methods 2 years after a devastative fire and life forms and geographical distributions of plant species were determined. Sixty nine plant species belonged to 29 families (25 Dicots, 3 monocots and one gymnosperm). The largest families were the Lamiaceae with 11, Asteraceae with 9 and Caryophyllaceae with 5 species. The percentages of life forms were determined as follows: Therophytes with 36% (25 species), Hemicryptophytes with 29% (20 species), Chamaephytes with 16% (11 species), Phanerophytes with 13% (9 species) and Cryptophytes with 6% (4 species) of total investigated species. The high percentage of Hemicryptophytes indicated the dominance of cold mountainous climate and the presence of Asteraceae species such as harmala (Peganum harmala) showed that a severe disturbance had taken place in the region, which indicated a poor ecological administration in the studied region.

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In a revision of annual Silene species some interesting specimens were observed, which belonged to the sp-ecies that had not been previously reported in detail from Iran. In this paper S. nocturna from the section Scorpioideae was added to the checklist of the third important genus of the flora of Iran, i.e. Silene, and new localities for S. gallica from the section Lasiocalycinae were reported. The description, geographical distribution in Iran and photos of each sp-ecies were also presented

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The Palang Galoun protected region, comprising 34935 hectares, is located 75 km northwest of Najaf Abad, and 102 km northwest of Isfahan city. The aim of this research was to assess the floristic spectrum, life form varieties, chorological analysis, determination of protected status and identification of medicinal, threatened species criteria and poisonous plants of this natural heritage. Plant samples were collected during different vegetative seasons at several stages. Life forms of samples were determined and chorological analysis was performed. On the basis of the obtained results, a total of 166 species belonging to 126 genera and 39 families were identified. Six families, 23 genera and 26 species belonged to monocotyledons, whereas 33 families, 103 genera and 140 species belonged to dicotyledons. In terms of chorological analysis, 58% of plant species were distributed in the Irano-Turanian region. It is noteworthy that 44 endemic species, 97 medicinal species, 48 pasture species and 23 poisonous species were present in the studied area. Life forms were found to comprise 54% hemicryptophytes, 24% therophytes, 10% geophytes, 7% chamaephytes and 5% phanerophytes. Based on IUCN red list categories and criteria, there were 22 species in the lower risk category and seven species categorized as vulnerable case.
 

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In this study, the phylogeny and morphological variation of 6 species of the genus Cousinia sect. Stenocephalae, i.e., C. hypopolia, C. decipiens, C. esfandiarii, C. renominata, C. stahliana and C. daryoushiana, distributed in NE regions of Iran, were investigated. ITS, ETS and rpl32-trnL ^(UAG) sequences for 12 species (17 specimens) were generated. Phylogenetic interspecies relationships were constructed by Bayesian method and likelihood analysis. The specimens were also investigated in terms of morphological characters. Despite very similar morphological characters and geographical distributions, the separation of these species was confirmed by the obtained results of the molecular data (combined data of plastid and nuclear sequences). On the basis of the present study, the above-mentioned species were almost separated from each other by morphological characters and molecular data. A diagnostic key and the description of these species were also presented. These results did not conform with the previous palynological and anatomical studies of the species.
 

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Golestankooh, with an area of 130000 ha, is located in Isfahan Province. The present study was carried out in order to identification of flora of the aforementioned region, as a result, 620 taxa in total, belonging to 61 families and 303 genera, were identified. Asteraceae, represented by 104 species, was the largest family, following with Fabaceae, Lamiaceae and Brassicaceae with 63, 60 and 59 species, respectively. Astragalus, with 33 species, was the most diverse among the genera studied. Hemicryptophytes with 41% and therophytes with 34% are dominant life forms in the region. With regard to geographical distribution, 300 species (48%) were found to be Irano-Turanian elements. Moreover, 130 species, 21% of the identified plant taxa from the region, were found to be endemic to the flora of Iran. Due to high species diversity in the Golestankooh area, it seems necessary to use appropriate strategies for their conservation.