Plants of Crimea: description and photo

The flora of the Crimea is very unusual and diverse. On the territory of the peninsula there are 2500 varieties of wild plants. This is an impressive figure. It is necessary to note the uniqueness of the flora. Here there are 250 endemics, ie, such plants that can not be found anywhere else in the world. In addition, Crimea is rich in relics - plants that have been preserved without any changes for millions of years.

Historical digression

Plants of the Crimea have been thoroughly studied. But, nevertheless, new discoveries are regularly made. And the reason for this is the uniqueness of the peninsula. As we have already noted, the plants of the Crimea are very diverse. Interesting is the fact that everywhere on the peninsula there are plants of very different origin. Among them there are relics and endemics. In addition, there are a lot of related plants from completely different Black Sea regions: the Caucasus, the Balkans, and Asia Minor. This phenomenon is connected with the history of the Crimea.

After all, it was originally a mountainous secluded peninsula, which for many thousands of times it was joined, then separated by land isthmus with the mainland (with the lands of the Caucasus, Asia Minor, the Balkans, the East European Plain). Therefore, the plants of the Crimea also changed. It should also be remembered that more than a thousand species of exotic specimens were imported by man for thousands of years of the history of this land. So it turned out that the flora of the peninsula acquired such a colorful and diverse appearance.

Change of vegetation belts

Another feature of the Crimea is a very clear change of vegetation from north to south.

The northern part of the peninsula is a hilly steppe. At present, most of them have long been plowed up, and therefore these lands have lost their natural appearance. The original species was preserved only those areas that are unsuitable for agriculture. These are solonchaks, gullies, ravines, stony plains.

In the foothills, the steppes change in the forest-steppe. Here, in addition to steppe plants, such species as juniper, fluffy oak, pear-loam, dog rose, hornbeam, etc., grow.

Further, to the south, the forest-steppe is gradually replaced by oak forests, which account for 60 percent of all forest plantations on the peninsula. In the Crimea they are sparse and light.

With the height of the oak forests are replaced by beech. 200-250-year-old trees amaze with their power and pristine, gloomy beauty. It is always very sombre, there is not even an undergrowth and a grassy cover, there is only a thick layer of fallen leaves. At an altitude of about a thousand meters, huge mighty beeches are replaced by clumsy, stunted trees.

At the very top of the forest are replaced by flat peaks, which are separated from each other by very deep passes. Externally, the eggs are like steppes. It is here that a quarter of all the endemics of the peninsula are located.

Further, closer to the sea, there is a belt of beech-pine and pine forests, which consists of the Crimean pine and the Scotch pine. There are also oaks, beeches, grabens. Natural pine forests are more pronounced on the South coast, which can not be said of the southeastern part.

South coast

Still to the south begins shiblyakovy belt, consisting of grabinnika, oak fluffy, juniper, small-fruited strawberries, pistachios and many other drought-resistant plants. In the south-east, the climate is very dry, because the shibliaks are very rare.

But on the South Coast they are quite thick. In general, the vegetation of the Southern coast is close to the Mediterranean, but very much changed by man. Most of the territory is occupied by health resorts, gardens, vineyards, roads. And also by the hands of a man, extensive parks have been created here, in which species that are brought to the peninsula grow. Imagine that many plants of the Southern coast of Crimea have been living here for about 200 years. Currently, all the parks have become an integral part and attraction of the South Coast. Among them are the famous Alupka, Foros, Livadia, Massandra, Gurzufsky parks. And what only stands the famous Nikitsky Botanical Garden, in which not only the plants of the Crimea are collected (photo is given in the article), but also a lot of imported exotic species.

I must say that the parks themselves have long merged with evergreen natural thickets and represent a single whole.

Reserves of Crimea

Plants of Crimea are protected by laws. On the peninsula, four completely new reserves and sixteen reserves have been created. Under protection are also natural monuments, reserved tracts, protected parks.

Near the Nikitsky botanical garden there is a reserve "Cape Martyan". Also on the peninsula is the Yalta Reserve, the Karadag Nature Reserve, in which rare plants of the Crimea are collected. This is only a small part of the reserved places of this region. All of them are unique and interesting in their own way, each has its own task of preserving relic and endemic plants. In this article we want to describe some of them.

Beech

Beech is a genus of the Bukov family. In the Crimea grows two kinds: ordinary and eastern. Both of them have a regal appearance and play a large soil-protecting and water-protecting role. The tree lives from 250 to 350 years. Blooms for the first time at the age of 30 years, and maybe even in 60 or 80 years. Blossoms in April with simultaneous opening of leaflets. In the autumn, nuts appear on the tree. They feed on squirrels, roe deer, wild boars, deer. Very valuable is beech oil, it is not inferior in properties to olive oil.

Well, we can not speak about wood. Due to its special property, it is used for making barrels for expensive wines, parquet, musical instruments, yachts. In the distant past trees in Crimea were mercilessly cut down. And now they are under protection. The grove on Ai-Petri is generally a reserved area.

Oak

Oak belongs to the Beech family. In total there are about 450 species of this plant in the world. The bark and wood of the tree are very much appreciated. In Crimea there is a fairly rare fluffy oak, which lives more than a thousand years. Such a millennial plant is located not far from Foros. Its girth is five and a half meters. And in Bakhchisarai district a tree with a girth of eight meters was found. As far back as 1820, a cork grove was laid in the Nikitsky garden, which feels fine to this day. Scientists of the garden were settled oaks of stone throughout the South Coast. Now this plant of the Southern Crimea.

Strawberry small-fruited

Plants and animals of the Crimea are so diverse that they never cease to amaze. And the Southern shore is a unique place, a piece of subtropics, where absolutely special plants grow, which, in principle, could not settle down in these parts, but thanks to the unique microclimate created by the mountains, they feel themselves very well here.

One of these plants is small-fruited strawberry. This evergreen tree, numbering more than twenty species, growing in North America and the Mediterranean. In Crimea, the plant is found only on the Southern shore. It has been preserved in these places since the Tertiary period, now it is listed in the Red Book. The tree reaches a height of six meters. It is characterized by a bizarrely twisted trunk and twisting tips of branches. The tree produces fruits very similar to strawberries. They are quite edible. Since plants have a decorative appearance, they are cultivated in the parks of the peninsula. And in the vicinity of Gaspra there are several trees, the age of which, according to scientists, is approaching a thousand years.

Figs

Figs are also called fig trees. His homeland is the Mediterranean. I must say that this evergreen plant, there are more than 800 of its species. For a man of particular value are the fruits. They are eaten fresh, dried, cooked with jam. In general, it is a very ancient plant on earth, it has been cultivated since time immemorial. However, it is not known exactly when and by whom this tree was brought to the Crimean peninsula. Now in the famous Nikitsky garden there are 300 kinds of figs. The tree has a powerful root system. We do not have flowers on the tree. But the fruit looks like a handbag with seeds inside.

Cypress is evergreen

It is a coniferous evergreen tree. In Crimea it got from Greece. It acclimatized here in ancient times. But the mass distribution was received in the 18th century, when many plants were delivered by order of Potemkin. The evergreen cypress has a pyramidal shape. Its needles are very soft to the touch. The cones are small and have a round shape, like a soccer ball. Seeds of cypresses are a food for a lot of birds: dubonos, woodpeckers, finches, zarinok. In addition, the tree is known for its healing properties.

Even the ancient Greeks noticed the positive influence of cypress on people with sick lungs. Modern scientists have proved that essential oils of wood have the strongest bactericidal action, which can suppress staphylococcus, Koch's wand and other bacteria. For medicinal purposes, cones are also used. Wood is particularly strong, it is resistant to rot and has a wonderful aroma. It was appreciated from time immemorial.

Orchid

Orchids are very common in the tropics. This type includes all known spice vanilla and a great variety of cultivated species in greenhouses. In Crimea, there are 39 species of this plant, 20 of which can be found in Laspi. According to meteorologists, this is the warmest place on the entire South Coast. He is even jokingly called "Crimean Africa". It is for this reason that many endemic plants are found here.

Red book of the Crimea. Plants included in it

The Crimea is a completely unique place, which has gathered in itself truly untold riches in the form of flora and fauna. Any tourist who first visited the peninsula, does not cease to admire its beauties and amazing plants. And there really is something to see, than to admire. What is worth only the richest history of this region.

If we talk about the unique plants of the peninsula, many of them are under protection and have long been listed in the Red Book. The plants of Crimea, the description of which we have given in the article, are very interesting and worthy of detailed attention. We would also like to dwell on those species that, for one reason or another, have already fallen into the Red Book. There are more than 250 of them. We list only a few of them:

1. Horsetail of the river.
2. The kostenets graceful.
3. The north kostenets.
4. Juniper deltoid.
5. Maple Steven.
6. Ira is elegant.
7. The cuff is oak.
8. Onions are reddish.
9. Hawthorn claw.
10. Sage meadow.
11. Dandelion Crimean.
12. Tulip of Bibirestein.
13. Forest grapes.
14. Sea Kamka.
15. Cystoseira bearded.

In general, the book includes: horsetail, gymnosperm, angiosperms, mosses and algae. In the list we have resulted only some plants of Crimea. The book also contains a broader list.

Instead of an afterword

Crimea is an absolutely unique and amazing place. In addition to extraordinary beauty, it affects the riches of the plant world. On the whole planet, perhaps, there are not so many places that can boast of such kind of richness of flora imported from other regions and settled down in a new place.