Spontaneous Flora of Urban Domestic Gardens of the City of Sarajevo

Gardens around private houses are complex urban habitats, and generally consist of a mosaic of different microhabitats including hedges, paved surfaces, lawns, flowerbeds, fruit trees, vegetable patches and areas of uncultivated land. Although their individual size is small, domestic gardens significantly contribute to the overall flora of the urban areas. The floristic composition of domestic gardens is influenced by both natural processes and by the activities of the owners, who shape them according to their own preferences, depending on culture and lifestyle. Domestic gardens have not been represented in ecological studies until recently, primarily due to lack of access and were deliberately omitted, but it has been showed that they represent the greatest source of potentially invasive alien plants. This study, conducted in the area of 32 km2, as a part of a wider study of the urban flora of the city of Sarajevo, presents the first detailed analysis of the spontaneous flora in the domestic gardens and provides new knowledge on the flora of this, often overlooked, habitat.