Die Trockenrasen-Vegetation des nördlichen Steinfeldes

2001

S. 113-128

49 Lit. Ang.

Unselbständiges Werk

200085573

The vegetation of the huge dry grassland of the Wiener Neustädter Steinfeld about 30 - 40 km south of Vienna, Austria has been surveyed and described. In this area are found the largest continuous steppe meadows in Austria, growing on holocene gravel deposite of mainly one river, the Piesting. The meadows are floristically part of the Fumano-Stipetum eriocaulis Wagner 1941 corr. Zolyomi 1966 in the order of the continentally distributed Festucetalia valesiaceae Br.-Bl. et Tx. ex Br.-Bl. 1949. This vegetation type is already known from limestone and dolomite at the easternmost border of the Alps. However, the present study reveals some important differences. One of the more important relates to the frequent occurrence of Carex liparocarpos in the steppe grasslands of the Steinfeld: this is a typical species in the dry meadows of elevated gravel banks in the alluvion of the river Danube in Eastern Austria. Although there is no longer any river flow in the area of the Steinfeld, this finding emphasizes the original ecological closeness to similar situations along other rivers and the pedological conditioning of the grasslands. The phytogeographic analysis of the dominant species shows the predominance of eastern-pontic elements but also reveals a significant portion of submediterranean and alpine/pre-alpine elements. Wide-ranging European or Eurasian elements are of minor importance.