Vegetation overview of meadows and pastures of north-west Šar-Planina Mountain (Serbia)

This paper is the result of years of research flora and vegetation of Šar-Planina Mountain state monitoring, endeavoring to preserve and improve this National park. Meadows and pastures of Šar-Planina Mountain are diverse, structurally and syngenically very complex grass communities which kept floral variety and uniqueness, notwithstanding the successions caused by anthropo-zoogenic influences. This type of vegetation has potentials for providing numerous eco-systemic services, mainly for production of healthy and good quality food. Šar-Planina Mountain massive is of great importance for biodiversity conservation of the Balkan Peninsula and Europe as a whole, particularly in terms of preserving the endemorelict flora and vegetation. In the previous papers most attention was given to forest and hasmophytic vegetation of Šar-Planina Mountain, whilst the vegetation of meadows and pastures is little known. Considering that this type of vegetation is in a phase of rapid succession due to stagnation of cattle breeding, in this paper we wanted to highlight its value, importance and the need for preservation.