Palatability of Mongolian rangeland plants

This document provides information on the palatability of plants on Mongolian rangelands including native and introduced vascular plants by major seasonal periods: winter (January - March), spring (April- June), summer (July - September), and autumn (October - December). In addition to this, some species of valuable lichen species are also included. Information is presented on 1044 plant species (131 grasses, 50 grass-like plants (sedges and rushes), 664 forbs, 161 shrubs/semishrubs, 17 woody/tree species and 8 lichen species found in Mongolia. About 13700 evaluations were included in this document. Camel, cattle/yaks, elk (Cervus elaphus sibiricus), deer (Moschus moschiferus), goat, horse, sheep, and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) were assigned herbivores to evaluate palatability for each species. However, due to lack of information, evaluation for each and every species may not be found. Also, 131 forage species which could be found on Mongolian rangelands were included besides to these 1044 species, although palatability information on them was not available or was very limited. For each plant species both the scientific and the Mongolian official names are provided for user’s convenience. This information is intended to contribute accumulating data bank for sustainable management of rangeland resources of Mongolia and possibly be useful to other countries and geographic regions with similar natural conditions, especially in Central Asian regions