Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 32/1. (2012)
Botany
Mihaela SÄMÄRGHITAN, Silvia OROIAN ________________г----'-----------------Studies on medicinal spontaneous flora in Mures county led to the identification of 304 species of medicinal plants [11]. The patrimony of the Division of Natural Sciences at the Mures County Museum includes many collections, whose scientific and documentary value is undisputed. Botanical collection of the museum comprises approximately 20,000 pieces from field research, donations and purchases. Among these pieces, medicinal species have a remarkable share. Mures County is located in north-central Romania, with an area of 6696 km2. It has a varied landscape, with differentiated climate on altitude, from the abundance of rainfall in the mountains to the arid steppe of the Transylvanian Plain. The mountainous area is represented by Cälimani and Gurghiului Mountains. Cälimanilor mountainous cones are composed of andesite, and volcanic plateaus, formed of agglomerates, are covered with mountain pastures with small marshy areas. In the Gurghiului Mountains, volcanic cones seem intertwined, plateaus are wider and smooth. The narrow Mures Gorge, with very close slopes, is the largest section through the volcanic chain in Eastern Transylvanian Basin. The transition from the mountains to Transylvania Plateau is through hilly and lowland regions. Tárnavelor Plateau is a hilly plateau, slightly curled, with cuesta landforms and asymmetrical slopes, affected by landslides, characterized by the presence of gas domes. Transylvanian Plain, north of Mures, appears as a geographical region with original features which confers it a touch of distinction. The landscape is characterized by a series of hills at an average altitude of 400 m, with depressions which reach over 200 m from the local base, valleys carved in clay, marl and Sarmatian sands, rare volcanic tuffs with eroded flanks and muddy flows, landslides that sometimes cross rivers, forming lakes that today are arranged in large ponds. Coastal slopes have usually western or southern orientation. From a climate perspective, Mures county lies in the temperate continental climate, of interference between the hills and the mountains. Annual average temperatures have values of 8 and 9 ° C in the west and between 2-4 ° C in the east. Term average precipitation ranges from 550 mm / year and 1000 to 1200 mm / year. Prevailing winds are from the west and north-west, with medium intensity and frequency. From the highest peaks of the mountains and down to the low plains of the rivers, we meet a wide range of regional, intrazonal and azonal soils. Mountain brown, yellowish brown podzolic or brown acid alpine meadows, acid brown forest and podzolic feriiluvial soils are specific to the mountainous areas and young soils of scree and also skeletal soils are specific to the slopes. In hilly and plateau area, most common are dark brown forest soils, sometimes clayilluviated, podzolic clay-illuviated pseudogleizated, brown chernozem forest soils, erosion and colluvial soils at the slopes base. In the Transylvanian Plain region, forest brown soils predominate, especially chernozems leachates, wet meadow black soils, yellowish coastal and eroded soils, chernozem levigated wet freatic and groundwater leachate and humic gley [15]. Material and methods Inventory was done according to the dominant active principles in the species analyzed. 1555 herbarium sheets of plants belonging to 69 families were processed. Within families, the plants were inventoried in alphabetical order of genres, and within genres, in the alphabetical order of the species. 20
