Checklist of the flora of the Nuratau State Nature Reserve (Uzbekistan)

The Nuratau State Nature Reserve is located in Farish District of Jizzakh Region of the Republic of Uzbekistan, in the central part of the Nuratau Range, between 40°20′ and 40°40′N and 66°30′ and 67°E, at elevations from 500 to 2169 m above sea level. This is a strictly protected area of Category Ia by IUCN established in 1975 for conservation of ecosystems, flora and fauna of the Nuratau Mountains, especially relict walnut-fruit forests and globally threatened Severtzov’s argali sheep (Ovis ammon subsp. severtzovi Nasonov, 1914). The territory of the Nuratau Reserve has changed several times. Initially, it covered 22,138 hectares. In 1990, 4,785 hectares were excluded from the reserve transferred to the Farish State Forestry, and the protected area was reduced to 17,752 hectares. The buffer zone of the Nuratau Reserve, covering an area of 15,322 hectares in Samarkand and Navoi regions, was established in 1986. In 2021, the buffer zone was increased to 22,313 hectares. In 2025, 4,265.97 ha of the buffer zone were joined to the core area of the nature reserve, and its area has reached 22,017.97 ha. Currently, the Nuratau Reserve together with its buffer zone covers an area of 39,163.17 ha. In a general outline, the landscapes of the Nuratau Reserve are typical for arid Central Asian middle-altitude mountains, with the predomination of grasslands, open xerophytic shrublands and rocky areas. The flora of the Nuratau State Nature Reserve is well-studied, and numerous herbarium specimens collected from this protected area are stored in TASH and reserve’s office. A preliminary unpublished checklist of the flora compiled in the 1980s and provided in the annual scientific reports of the Nuratau Nature Reserve, included 503 plant species. In 1990s–2000s, this checklist was expanded significantly as a result of further floristic inventory. In 2011, N.Yu. Beshko published an updated checklist of the flora of the Nuratau Nature Reserve with 820 species from 385 genera and 81 families. After this publication, a number of new records for the flora of the Nuratau Nature Reserve and the Nuratau Mountains were found. In 2025, within the framework of the state research program “Digital Nature. Development of a digital platform for the flora of Central Uzbekistan”, the researches of the Institute of Botany carried out a revision of the flora of this protected area (taking into account above mentioned territorial changes), and compiled an actual checklist of flora, which includes 876 species of vascular plants recorded for the territory of the Nuratau Reserve together with its buffer zone.