Spatiotemporal aspects of the occurrence of clonal steppe plant Adonis vernalis L. in the southern Poland

The research was carried out in three steppe nature reserves in the Nida Basin (southern Poland) aiming at determine an impact of geomorphological conditions and spatial arrangement on selected parameters of life history of Adonis vernalis in the year 2007-2008. In each reserve 10 1-m2 permanent plots, using stratified-random sampling method, were established and frequency of particular developmental phases were noted in April and May. In 2007 and 2008 total 1145 and 1132 ramets were counted respectively. We observed negative relationships between density of clumps per 1 m2 and number of specific developmental phases and height of clumps. Phenology of Adonis vernalis shows distinct year-to-year changes what is probably connected with sensitivity of plants to weather fluctuations. Our study revealed that relations between ramets and density of clumps are similar independently on local biotopic conditions, relief structure, differences in abundance of population, and type of vegetation in neighbourhood.