Why is the Khomutovskaya steppe so called. Khomutovskaya steppe - fauna of the reserve
Khomutovskaya steppe- central office Ukrainian State Steppe Natural Reserve. Botanical reserve.
This is the first (and most significant in terms of area) organized into a reserve.
Address: Donetsk region, Novoazovsky district, s. Khomutovo.
Khomutovskaya steppe
The Khomutovskaya steppe is located on the Azov coastal plain and decreases from north to south, and in the west the boundary of the reserve runs along the Gruzskoy Elanchik river. The natural boundary in the south is the Obolonskaya beam. From east to west, the territory of the steppe is dissected by two beams, on the slopes of which, as in the Gruzsky Elanchik valley, limestones are shed.
Before the revolution, the so-called Khomutovskaya herd cleanup was owned and used as a pasture for young horses. After the October Revolution, this territory was included in the state land fund and continued to be used as a pasture and hayfield.
In June 1925, employees of the Mariupol Museum of Local Lore Yu.D. Kleopov and N.P. Kovalenko, together with a representative of the Mariupol Okrug Department, conducted a survey of the Khomutovskaya steppe and noted its great scientific importance. The research materials were heard at a meeting of the Mriupol district executive committee, and on August 24, 1926, the Khomutovskaya steppe was declared a reserve of local importance. Since 1961, it has become part of the Ukrainian State Steppe Reserve.
A curtain of thin-leaved peony in the Khomutovskaya steppe
Khomutovskaya steppe serves as a natural standard for the study of soils, flora and fauna. There are 560 plant species here, among which 50 are rare and endemic, 15 of them are listed in the Red Books.
By the nature of the vegetation cover, the Khomutovskaya steppe is the southern version of the forb-fescue-feather grass steppes. Grasses form the basis of the grass cover: furrowed fescue, Lessing's feather grass and hairy feather grass, in some places awnless stalk and couch grass, and in low areas also coastal stokolos, in some places ground marten. Volga Adonis, Schrenk's tulips, oaky, serpentine, pleasant and two-colored violets, medicinal marshmallow, narrow-leaved peony (black cohosh), Austrian wild flax and many other steppe plants grow here. And only occasionally in the steppe, against the background of the grass cover, bushes of laxative joster, ordinary blackthorn, wild rose (14 species), bush karagani, steppe almonds, etc. rise.
Stone woman in the Khomutovskaya steppe
The channel of the Gruzsky Elanchik is covered almost throughout its entire length with powerful toast thickets, reaching 4-5 meters in height.
The nightingale, oriole, turtledove nest along the river bank. Goldfinch, rook, magpie, gray partridge live in the steppe all year round. On spring migrations the night heron, the nightjar, the yellow-mouthed beetle, and the wild pigeon linger for some time. In winter, you can often see a sparrow hawk, a long-eared owl, and sometimes an eagle owl.
The Khomutov steppe is the place where you can fully imagine what our land looked like during the time of the Scythians and Sarmatians, Pechenegs and Polovtsians, Kievan Rus and the battle on the Kalka River... Nowadays it is part of the Ukrainian steppe nature reserve. The reserve is located just 20 km from the Sea of Azov, not far from the Donetsk-Novoazovsk highway. The entrance to the reserve is located in the village of Samsonovo.
The beginning of the reserve was laid in 1926, when a decision was made to organize the Khomutovskaya Steppe reserve. Before that, there was a herd of young horses of the Don Cossacks grazing here. Here and now a small herd of horses is grazing as part of an experiment on the conservation of steppe vegetation.
From different parts of the steppe, stone "women" (from the Turkic - ancestors) were brought here to recreate the complete primitiveness of the steppe. Some are installed at the entrance to the reserve, one of them is at the highest point of the reserve.
In 1976, People's Artist of the USSR S.F. It was here that Bondarchuk filmed the adaptation of the novel by A.P. Chekhov "Steppe". In honor of this, a memorial stone with a plaque was erected on the territory of the reserve.
Of course, the most beautiful time in the steppe is spring and early summer. The flowering time of different herbs, when one type of plant replaces another. Time of thunderstorms, fogs and beautiful sky. Here I was lucky to visit in May 2013 and April of this 2014. And in April I visited twice - in pursuit of the flowering of Vorontsov. 
Here you can fully feel the endless expanse of the steppe, when the gaze runs beyond the horizon without clinging to anything. Here you can inhale the aroma of herbs and the singing of birds to the point of intoxication. Here you can walk without getting tired and admire the pristine beauty of the steppe...
There are two reserves in the Donetsk region - Khomutovskaya steppe and Kamenye Mohyly, which are branches of the Ukrainian steppe reserve. Today we will visit the Khomutovskaya steppe.
It is located near the village of Khomutovo, Novoazovsky district. The Sea of Azov is located 20 kilometers south of the reserve.
The area of the Khomutovskaya steppe is 1028 hectares. The reserve is located on the Azov coastal plain, which is characterized by flat-wavy relief. The territory of the Khomutovskaya steppe is a plateau, gradually descending to the Gruzsky Elanchik River and cut through by small ravines with gentle slopes, which are covered with a layer of loess-like loams. Tertiary (Sarmatian) limestones are exposed along the river bank and in some places on the slopes of the beams. The soils are the Azov variety of ordinary chernozems, which are distinguished by a large thickness of humus horizons and a significant carbonate content.
The Khomutovskaya steppe received the status of a reserve in 1926. Prior to this, the area was used for grazing and haymaking. Before the revolution, it was the herd cleanup of the Don Cossacks. In 1926, the Mariupol district executive committee issued a resolution on the organization of local nature reserves - the Khomutovskaya steppe, Belosaraiskaya spit and Stone Graves and transferred them to the jurisdiction of the Mariupol Museum of Local Lore. Ten years later, the Donetsk Regional Executive Committee declared the Khomutovskaya steppe a reserve of regional significance. Since 1947, it has become a state reserve of republican and later state significance.
Animal world of the reserve
The animal and feathered world of the reserve is quite diverse. Large and crested larks, gray partridge, millet, common and black-fronted shrike, and shrike nest on flat areas. There are a cuckoo, a tit-remez, a nightjar. Of the birds of prey, you can meet the kestrel, kite, harrier. Large and small bittern, teal, mallard, red heron and others live in reeds along the river bank.
Mammals are represented by fox, weasel, ferrets - steppe and bandaging. Common hare, mole rat, hamster, ground squirrel, large jerboa, eared and common hedgehog. In recent years, a successful reacclimatization of the bobak has begun.
Of the reptiles, there are a quick lizard, a steppe viper, a copperhead, a yellow-bellied snake, a water snake and an ordinary one. In the river there are bream, perch, roach and other fish, a lot of crayfish.
Vegetation of the reserve
The steppe vegetation of the reserve is a variant of forb-feather grass steppes. In a few places - on the tops of inter-beam watersheds and in the upper part of steep slopes, forb-grass groupings have been preserved with a predominance of Lessing's feather grass, Ukrainian hairy and beautiful, as well as furrowed fescue. In their herbage, there are also Romanian alfalfa and colorful forbs: drooping sage, whorled and Austrian steppe plantain, tuberous gooseberry, Volga adonis, Marshall's thyme, broad-leaved kermek, and in some places - rare in Ukraine and in the Donbass plant Tatar katran.
As a result of the introduction of the reserve regime (cessation of grazing and a significant reduction in haymaking) steppe meadowing occurs, which is expressed in the spread of long-rhizome cereals. Large areas on gentle slopes, inter-beam watersheds and flat areas of the plateau are occupied by groups of creeping and hairy couch grass, awnless brome, narrow-leaved bluegrass and reed reed grass. Groupings look like compact thickets. The admixture of other steppe species is insignificant: bristly yarrow, steppe speedwell, Russian bedstraw, small cornflower, lanceolate carnation.
Along the plume of the slopes and on the terraces along the Gruzsky Elanchik there are small areas of steppe meadows. The vegetation cover is dominated by fescue, meadow fescue, narrow-leaved bluegrass, red clover and changeable. They are mixed with the rank of meadow and tuberous, field harrow, early sedge, hill geranium, Thuringian hatma.
Along the channel of the Gruzsky Elanchik along the territory of the reserve stretch high thickets of common reed with an admixture of water cake, drooping and fox sedge, thickets of white, brittle, red willow. In total, there are more than 500 plant species in the reserve.
- The awakening of the steppe from winter dormancy begins at the first days of April. Against the brown background of last year's plant residues, the greens of new leaves and the first flowers are breaking through - pale purple bells of netted saffron, yellow stars of goose onions, a white-pink haze of spring grains, golden spots of Volga adonis are spilling. The edges of the shrubbery are turning blue from the drooping spell.
If in April the steppe is inherent yellowish brown color, then the rocky slopes at this time are a multi-colored carpet: the blue spots of the Pallas hyacinth are interspersed with yellow serpentine tulips and blue, purple, yellow, cream circles of low iris. The Schrenk tulip is especially beautiful - it blooms very beautifully in dark red.
- In the first half of May the steppe is green with dark-purple spots of the crow, yellow - shrubby dereza, white - thin-leaved birdweed.
- The most colorful steppe in the second half of May - early June. In the wind, the silvery feathers of feather grass are agitated, interspersed with dark blue tufts of drooping sage, huge caps of the Tatar katran are scattered everywhere. In some places, the purple aspect is given by the purple mullein, pink - tuberous gooseberry, blue - small-colored catnip, white - six-petalled meadowsweet, steppe plantain, yellow - steppe euphorbia and Segier, dyer's woad.
The slopes of the Klimushanskaya ravine turn yellow from the blooming Volga calofaki - a rare plant in Ukraine. On limestone outcrops - a solid yellow carpet of flax Chernyaev.
- In the second half of June The color scheme of the steppe is formed mainly by prickly thorn grass, dry-colored serpuha, kachim panicled, Don sainfoin, which give it pink and red shades. Russian bedstraw, oriental cornflower and Romanian alfalfa diversify the general background with yellow spots. On some plants, fruits are already appearing by that time. This gives some areas a brown tint.
- In July, the steppe loses its beauty. Straw-brown stems of plants with ripe fruits are visible everywhere. Only pale yellow scabiosa, oriental mullein, common cutter bloom. On the outcrops, a white-pink carpet is formed by the cretaceous femur, the tall kachim, and the short-headed yurea.
- In August, broad-leaved kermek stands out with lilac caps. On the outcrops - kachim tall and Ural capitula, hairy feather grass also blooms.
- In autumn, life in the steppe seems to freeze. Individual specimens of late-summer plants bloom, and the wind drives the “tumbleweed” - the broken off dried parts of the katran, prickly thorn, kermek, panicled kachim and common cutter.
Map of the Khomutovskaya steppe
The reserve is one of the few remnants of the steppes that once occupied large areas in the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov. In its open spaces one can get acquainted with the rich in the past flora and fauna of the southern Azov steppes.
Scientists in the Khomutovskaya steppe are doing a lot of work on studying the flora and fauna of the steppes, using them for the needs of the national economy. Students of higher educational institutions do their internship here, and secondary school students get acquainted with the flora (which we will talk about later) and the animal world. The reserve hosts numerous excursions.
A few words about one architectural monument of Ancient Greece. built from 421 BC to 406. It is believed that the building was installed where Athena and Poseidon once argued over the ownership of Attica.
Be sure to give a loved one a good gift! will be an excellent solution to this problem due to the fact that you can buy quite high-quality and inexpensive things there.
