The Commander Islands – the northernmost oceanic islands of Russian Far East – represent vulnerable ecosystem (as could be learned from deleterious consequences of early period of human colonization). The archipelago consists of two relatively large islands – Bering and Mednyj and of several tiny stony islands. The only settlement, connected by shipping and airplanes with mainland, is situated on the Bering Island. Investigations of the unique flora of the Commander Islands are hampered by absence of local professional botanists and lack of visiting botanists due to resource deficiency coupled with poor accessibility of the islands.

Our previous studies of poorly known flora of the Bering Island, supported by Rufford Small Grant, provided abundant new information. However, we did not manage to visit the second large island Mednyj due to its poor accessibility. So the current status and location of endangered plants populations on the Mednyj Island thus remains unstudied.

Two species included in the Red Book of Russia as decreasing in number have been reported from the Mednyj Island: Isoetes maritima (the only known location on the island) and Cypripedium yatabeanum. The island also serves as western border of area for 13 North American species, the Commander Islands are the only locality of vulnerable peripheral populations of these species in Russia (most of them are included in Red Book of Kamchatka). Status of the local populations of the abovementioned species is unknown; search for new populations is deserved.

In this project we are going to reveal exact actual status of known populations of the endangered species on the Mednyj Island and look for new, previously unknown populations in suitable habitats from remote and not yet investigated locations. Moreover, as a number of rare species on the Commander Islands has been found only recently (in the beginning of XXI century, including our findings on the Bering Island), we expect findings of new rare species. The obtained information on location and status of the populations of the endangered species will be disseminated in various ways. Part of the field studies will be done in collaboration with staff of the Komandorsky nature reserve, increasing their knowledge of the species biology. As a result it would be possible to perform better protection of these species and monitoring of the populations and also ecological education of the community.