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Abstract
Two Umbelliferous tall herbs – Laserpitium siler and Grafia golaka tend to form monodominant stands in the montane belt of the North Adriatic Karst after grassland abandonment. The germination and development of shade-tolerant species of further successional stages could be facilitated by favorable climatic conditions, measured in the canopy, but colonization by woody species was not perceived, except for Pinus sylvestris and Pinus nigra, which are not common trees in the area. The vegetation history of the site shows rather slow reforestation after abandonment and almost exclusively with pine woodland. All organs of both Umbelliferous species showed high allelopathic potential, measured as significantly inhibited germination and early development of test plants in bioassays. Under similar treatments, the germination rate of P. sylvestris was reduced, but further development of seedlings was stable. One possible explanation for the relative persistence of Umbelliferous monodominant stands is the strong allelopathic potential of both umbellifers. They act as “succession retardants”, and only pinus is able to colonize these stands successfully; the explanation for that is based on the presence of the same essential oils (limonene, pinene) in both Pinus and L. siler.
Acknowledgments
The research for this article was funded by the program group “Biodiversity” (P1-0078) (founded by the Slovenian Research Agency) and by Slovenian – Austrian bilateral project “Population ecology and ecophysiological research research in different grasslands in Slovenia” (SLO-A 03). The authors thank A. Mujdrica, Ž. Cenc, N. Oschgan, and B. Kojc for their help in the field and in the laboratory.