The primary scientific focus of the Department of Systematics and Phylogeny of Vascular Plants and Phytogeography with Phytosociology (Prof. Dr. Mitko Kostadinovski, Prof. Dr. Renata Ǵušterevska, and Assist. M.Sc. Sara Vurmeska Cvetanoska) is the investigation of the flora and vegetation of the Republic of Macedonia and the southern regions of the Balkan Peninsula.
These studies have been conducted within numerous national and international research projects. To date, six fascicles of Volume I of the series Flora of the Republic of Macedonia have been published, encompassing lycopodiophytes, equisetophytes, ferns, gymnosperms, and the group Choripetalae within angiosperms. Additionally, two fascicles of Volume II have been issued, covering a portion of the families within the group Sympetalae. The outcomes of taxonomic, phytosociological, and phytogeographical investigations have been disseminated in numerous international and national scientific journals.
Parallel to floristic research, over the past decade the Department has undertaken extensive phytosociological studies of meadows, dry grasslands, high-mountain grasslands, riparian vegetation, chasmophytic vegetation, pioneer vegetation of the class Sedo-Scleranthetea, and ruderal vegetation across multiple regions of the Republic of Macedonia (including Mariovo, Kozjak, Pletvar, Sivec, Barbaras, Baba Sač, Luben, Suvo Pole, the vicinity of Veles, Krivolak, Galičica, Debrca, Prespa, Mavrovo, Šar Planina, Jablanica, Ovče Pole, and Markovi Kuli, among others).
Particular emphasis has been placed on international collaboration, especially with the Biological Institute “Jovan Hadži” at the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) in Ljubljana, within which three projects have been completed or are currently in progress. These projects address diverse phytosociological issues, including the vegetation of annual plants in the transitional zone between the Euro-Siberian and North American regions, comparative analyses of secondary shrub vegetation in the Continental and Mediterranean parts of the Balkan Peninsula, and syntaxonomic analyses of grazed therophytic communities on abandoned fields in Macedonia and Slovenia.
Further international cooperation has been established with the Institute of Botany at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, through which two projects have thus far been realized. Research arising from this collaboration has focused on plant species of the genus Euphorbia within the territory of Macedonia and more broadly across the Balkan Peninsula (including Bulgaria, Albania, Kosovo, Romania, and Turkey). This partnership has introduced, for the first time within the Department, a multidisciplinary approach to plant taxonomy, integrating molecular analyses alongside traditional morphometric methods.
Concurrently with these research activities, the herbarium collection has been progressively expanded. In 2009, it was formally registered as the Macedonian National Herbarium (MKNH), which today comprises more than 180,000 herbarium specimens.