Endemic Plants of Lake Van Basin

This study was carried out on endemic plants collected from the Lake Van basin between 1994 and 2002. As a result, 98 endemic taxa, 23 of which grow only in the Lake Van basin, were determined. Including the endemic taxa reported before from the region, a list of 259 endemic taxa belonging to 34 families and 117 genera were compiled. Twenty-three of 259 taxa listed, are unique to the Lake Van Basin. There are 249 endemic taxa in the VANF Herbarium. The authors collected 98 of them. The other 151 endemic taxa were determined by other researchers. Ten endemic taxa were recorded from the literature. In addition to the features in the Flora of Turkey, new features and variations of nine endemic taxa identified. Total 612 images and 200 pictures belonging to 98 endemic taxa scanned and transferred to computer. All images were uploaded to the web page, Virtual Herbarium of the Lake Van Basin, which is also a part of VANF Herbarium