Knorring’s Haw-tree
Status: VU. A narrowly endemic species.
Description. A tree up to 5 - 6 m in height. Leaves are narrowly elliptic or ovate, weakly lobed. Fruits are yellow, small, with five deeply pitted stones. Triterpenes have been identified in the plant.
Biological features. It flowers at the end of April - beginning of May. Fruits ripen in September. Vegetation ends in October. Propagation is by seeds.
Distribution general and in the country. Kyrgyzstan: Chychkan River valley, Chatkal, Fergana, and Alai mountain ranges.
Habitat. Among woody-shrub vegetation in river valleys, on stony and silty slopes in the lower and middle mountain belts.
Population. Insignificant. Grows as single specimens.
Limiting factors. Economic development of the habitat area. Used by the local population for fuel. Very weakly regenerates.
Cultivation. No information available.
Existing conservation measures. Included in the Red Book of the Kyrgyz SSR (1985).
Recommended conservation measures. In the Toskoul-Ata and Kara-Alma forestry, all remaining plants should be protected from logging and grazing of young plants by livestock.
Knorring’s Haw-tree
Knorring’s Haw-tree
Crataegus knorringiana Pojark
Status: VU. This narrow-endemic, insufficiently studied species is endemic to Kyrgyzstan and is known in the Chychkan Ravine, Chatkal, Fergana, and Alai Mountains. It occurs as single individuals (trees up to 5-6 m in height) on stony and silty-soil slopes and in river valleys with trees and shrubs, in low- and mid-montane belts; the population is insignificant. Period of flowering: end of April - beginning of May, fruiting in September, propagation is generative but reproduction is observed very seldom. Limiting factors: weak propagation, economic activity in the area, felling (firewood-cutting by local people). This species has food value, and triterpenes have also been revealed in the plants; it has been cultivated in Bishkek Botanical Garden since 1958, but propagation by seeds has not been registered. The species is included in the Red Book of the country in 1985. It is necessary to check all individuals and to organize full protection for the species in Toskaul-Ata and Kara-Alma Forestries.
