Abstract:As a result of our field floristic studies in the recent years (2012 and 2013), we recorded some new data on the occurrence and chorology of three vascular plant species in Romania. Two of these are alien plants, invasive in many geographic regions of the world, namely: Acroptilon repens (an Asian species, reported as a newcomer in the flora of Romania, in this paper), and Picris echioides (a Mediterranean species, which is reported now in new localities). The third species, Pedicularis sylvatica, is a quite rare indigenous plant, critically threatened in Romania, reported here for the first time in the flora of Moldavia (eastern Romania).

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A limited number of species and genera currently dominate the tree stock in streets and urban sites. There has been considerable and persistent argumentation for the necessity of using a more varied and stress-tolerant selection of tree species. This paper reports results from a dendroecological study of six steppe forest reserves in north-east Romania and in the adjacent part of the Republic of Moldavia, where water stress regimes during the growing season and winter temperatures are comparable to those of inner city environments in northern parts of Central Europe and adjoining milder parts of Northern Europe (CNE-region). In each forest reserve, tree growth patterns were studied in five 20 m×20 m plots, resulting in a total of 30 plots with an allocated area of 1.2 hectares. For all trees, height and diameter were measured and related to tree age by coring in order to detect the species growth and performance in these sites. In total 23 tree species were found, 13 of which were represented by 25 or more individuals with documented good growth in the study plots. The majority of these 13 species have very limited use in urban greenery in the CNE-region today and thus have the potential to increase the species diversity of the current urban tree population through further selection work.

In the context of global warming, alpine-subalpine plant species are some of the most threatened. The distribution of these species in the Romanian Carpathians is centralized and analyzed for the first time. A network with 472 grid cells of 12.5 9 11.5 km (6 0 latitude 9 10 0 longitude) has been used to register the distribution of 550 selected high mountain taxa. The analysis starts with a brief description of the most important determinants of alpinesubalpine species richness, continues with a comparison between the different sub groups of the Romanian Carpathians and a discussion of their particularities. The purpose of the paper is to identify areas in need of protection as well as rare and vulnerable species outside the network of protected areas. A description of the current network of protected areas from the Romanian Carpathians is provided, with ideas for improvement.

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