Flora and Vegetation of Turkey
Encyclopedia
In the year 2000 about 9300 species of vascular plants were known for the area of the Turkish Republic. The significance of this number becomes evident if we compare it with Europe as a whole, containing about 24% more species (about 11500), distributed over a thirteen times larger area.
The most important reasons for Turkey’s high plant biodiversity
are supposed to be the relatively high proportion of endemics in combination with a high degree of climatic and edaphic
variety.
. For Austria
the respective value is meagre 1,56 % and for the British Isles it is still lower. Moreover, none of the endemic British species is taxonomically remote from a non-endemic species. An ultra-conservative taxonomist might therefore unite all the endemic species with none-endemic ones, thus reducing endemism on the British Isles to 0%.
On the other hand, rates of endemism are also highly dependent on the surfaces of compared areas and their delimitations. In order to achieve better comparable data we might unite the surfaces of Germany and France, thus obtaining an even larger area than Turkey. But the estimated proportion of endemics still would remain much lower, with Germany alone having about the same low proportion as Austria.
One reason for this relative importance of endemism in the Turkish flora is the mountainous and at the same time rather strongly fragmentised surface of Anatolia. In fact the Anatolian mountains resemble archipelagos like the famous Galapagos Islands
. Since Darwin
we know that geographic isolation between islands or separated mountains is an important means of speciation
, leading to high spatial diversity. For Anatolia this assumption is conformed by concentrations of endemism on highly isolated and relatively old massifs as Uludağ or Ilgaz Dağ, whereas very young volcanic cones as Ercyes Dağ or Hassan Dağ are surprisingly poor in endemics. .
As the evolution of local endemics is a rather lengthy process, we have to consider also the different histories of central or north European mountains and the Anatolian ones. During each of the glacial periods the former were covered by thick shields of permanent ice. Thereby pre-glacial endemism was mostly destroyed and the forming of neo-endemics hindered. Only less glaciated, peripheral areas, the so called “massifs de refuge”, offered suitable conditions for the survival of local endemics during glacial periods.
In Anatolia ice cover during Pleistocene
glaciations always remained restricted to the highest peaks. As a logical consequence, species with small distribution-areas are a rather common phenomenon in many parts of the country. In other words: Anatolia as a whole is a big “massif de refuge”, showing all degrees of past and recent speciation.
coast is humid all the year round, with the highest rainfall between Rize
and Hopa
. South of the Pontic Range rainfall drops abruptly and in Central Anatolia dry and winter-cold conditions prevail. Approaching the southern and western coasts, the climate turns more and more Mediterranean, with mild but very rainy winters and dry, hot summers. This simple scheme is complicated a lot by the mountainous surface of Anatolia. On the high mountains harsh climatic conditions persist all the year round. There are even small glaciers on the north side of Cilo Dağ and on Mount Ararat
.
Also in regard to edaphic conditions Anatolia’s diversity is astonishingly high. Saline soils are rather common in the driest parts of central Anatolia. But also the Aras valley between Kağızman
and the Armenian border is full of impressive salt outlets, some pouring directly out of the mountains and thus resembling snow patches from the distance. In the regions south of Sivas and around Gürün large areas of Gypsum
hills are to be found with a very special flora. A further lot of endemics have been described from the extensive serpentine
areas in South-West Anatolia, especially from Sandras Dağ (Cicekbaba D.) near Köyceğiz
.
(milk-vetch, goat's-thorn; Fabaceae
) is by far the most important genus of the Turkish flora. This may be explained by its predisposition to treeless, dry and heavily grazed habitats. Their extension augmented drastically due to human activities in historical times. Still more Astragalus species are reported from central Asia. The flora of the former UDSSR contains about 800 species. The plasticity of this genus is astonishingly high. Depending from environmental conditions a big variety of life-forms evolved, reaching from tiny annuals to small woody and thorny bushes. Speciation seems to be in plain progress in Astragalus. Nearly each of its different sections consists of clusters of closely related species whose determination is one of the hardest tasks in a closer study of the Anatolian flora. One of the most successful growth forms of Turkish Astragali is the thorn cushion, which is very characteristic for the dry mountains of inner Anatolia. Such thorn cushions were not exclusively invented by many Astragali. Really striking examples of convergent evolution are the impressive thorn cushions of Onobrychis cornuta, also belonging to the Fabaceae. But there are a lot of thorn cushions also in Acantholimon
(Plumbaginaceae
). Even some Asteraceae
(in Turkey e.g. Centaurea
urvillei, C. iberica) and Caryophyllaceae
(e.g. Minuartia
juniperina) evolved in that direction.
Second in importance comes Verbascum (Scrophulariaceae
) and third is Centaurea
(Asteraceae
). For Verbascum Turkey evidently is the centre of distribution. From approximately 360 species worldwide not less than 232 are to be found in Turkey, 79,4% of them being Anatolian endemics! Most Verbascum species are protected against water losses and hungry cattle by a dense cover of tree-shaped micro hairs. Centaurea species rarely have woolly hairs, but in defence against heavy grazing developed thorny phyllaries or evolved to acaulous forms.
during the whole year. Climatic conditions on the northern coast therefore resemble those in central Europe and so does the vegetation. A limited Mediterranean influence is noticeable only on a very narrow coastal strip, but almost completely missing in the North-East. In the lower forest zone often Hornbeam
(Carpinus betolus) prevails, frequently intermingled with Sweet Chestnut
(Castanea sativa). Further up Oriental Beech (Fagus orientalis) and/or Nordmann Fir (Abies nordmanniana) form extensive forests. Humidity becomes extremely high in Lazistan, where the Pontic barrier culminates in the nearly 4000 m high Kackar Daği. East of Trabzon
therefore vegetation becomes somewhat sub-tropic, with a lot of evergreens on the forest grounds and tea plantations everywhere on the slopes.
South of the Pontic watershed the climate immediately gets drier. In the mountains first Abies nordmanniana, but then soon Pinus becomes dominant. In the western parts of Anatolia this is often Black Pine (Pinus nigra), in the east nearly exclusively Scotts Pine (Pinus sylvestris). Penetrating further into the central parts of inner Anatolia leads to still dryer, wintercold conditions. Today the lower parts of central Anatolia are virtually treeless. Fields on deep alluvial soils alternate with steppe on the dryer hills. But it is still an open question where and to what degree this central Anatolian steppe is due to aridity or to human forest destruction. Aridity is most pronounced around Tuz Gölü south of Ankara und and in the Aras-valley near the Armenian border. Between Kağizman and Tuzluca
this valley is so dry, that here and there pure salt deposits are glittering like white snowfields from the bare slopes.
The Taurus Range forms the southern limit of the central Anatolian Plateau. Mediterranean influence is already very pronounced there, with a lot of snow in winter, but dry and warm summers. Climax forests are formed by Black Pine, Cilician Fir (Abies cilicica
) and Lebanon Cedar (Cedrus libani). Unfortunately there has been a lot of deforestation in the Taurus, most gravely affecting the stands of Cedrus.
On the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts pronounced Mediterranean conditions prevail, with very hot and dry summers and very rainy winters. Antalya
has considerably more total precipitation than London (1071 mm versus 759 mm), but its seasonal distribution is completely different and average temperature is of course much higher (18,3°C versus 9,7°). Such conditions favour the growth of hard-leaved evergreen trees such as Kermes Oak (Quercus coccifera) and Turkish Pine (Pinus brutia). But due to massive forest destruction today hills and slopes in coastal West and South Anatolia mostly are covered with macchie. Where fertile alluvial soils prevail, e.g. in the Cilician Plain around Adana
, there is intense agriculture.
The most important reasons for Turkey’s high plant biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
are supposed to be the relatively high proportion of endemics in combination with a high degree of climatic and edaphic
Edaphic
Edaphic is a nature related to soil. Edaphic qualities may characterize the soil itself, including drainage, texture, or chemical properties such as pH. Edaphic may also characterize organisms, such as plant communities, where it specifies their relationships with soil...
variety.
Endemism
DAVIS & al. (1988) calculated that nearly one third or Turkish plant species (30,6 %) is endemic to Turkey and the nearby Aegean IslandsAegean Islands
The Aegean Islands are the group of islands in the Aegean Sea, with mainland Greece to the west and north and Turkey to the east; the island of Crete delimits the sea to the south, those of Rhodes, Karpathos and Kasos to the southeast...
. For Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
the respective value is meagre 1,56 % and for the British Isles it is still lower. Moreover, none of the endemic British species is taxonomically remote from a non-endemic species. An ultra-conservative taxonomist might therefore unite all the endemic species with none-endemic ones, thus reducing endemism on the British Isles to 0%.
On the other hand, rates of endemism are also highly dependent on the surfaces of compared areas and their delimitations. In order to achieve better comparable data we might unite the surfaces of Germany and France, thus obtaining an even larger area than Turkey. But the estimated proportion of endemics still would remain much lower, with Germany alone having about the same low proportion as Austria.
One reason for this relative importance of endemism in the Turkish flora is the mountainous and at the same time rather strongly fragmentised surface of Anatolia. In fact the Anatolian mountains resemble archipelagos like the famous Galapagos Islands
Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, west of continental Ecuador, of which they are a part.The Galápagos Islands and its surrounding waters form an Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a...
. Since Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
we know that geographic isolation between islands or separated mountains is an important means of speciation
Speciation
Speciation is the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise. The biologist Orator F. Cook seems to have been the first to coin the term 'speciation' for the splitting of lineages or 'cladogenesis,' as opposed to 'anagenesis' or 'phyletic evolution' occurring within lineages...
, leading to high spatial diversity. For Anatolia this assumption is conformed by concentrations of endemism on highly isolated and relatively old massifs as Uludağ or Ilgaz Dağ, whereas very young volcanic cones as Ercyes Dağ or Hassan Dağ are surprisingly poor in endemics. .
As the evolution of local endemics is a rather lengthy process, we have to consider also the different histories of central or north European mountains and the Anatolian ones. During each of the glacial periods the former were covered by thick shields of permanent ice. Thereby pre-glacial endemism was mostly destroyed and the forming of neo-endemics hindered. Only less glaciated, peripheral areas, the so called “massifs de refuge”, offered suitable conditions for the survival of local endemics during glacial periods.
In Anatolia ice cover during Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
glaciations always remained restricted to the highest peaks. As a logical consequence, species with small distribution-areas are a rather common phenomenon in many parts of the country. In other words: Anatolia as a whole is a big “massif de refuge”, showing all degrees of past and recent speciation.
Ecologic Diversity
For a visitor from Central Europe climatic diversity within Turkey is quite astonishing. On a somewhat smaller scale all climatic zones of Europe can be found. The Black SeaBlack Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
coast is humid all the year round, with the highest rainfall between Rize
Rize
Rize is the capital of Rize Province, in northeast Turkey, on the Black Sea coast.-Etymology:The name comes from Greek or Ριζαίον , meaning "mountain slopes". In modern times, its name in Greek was usually Ριζούντα . Its Latin forms are Rhizus and Rhizaeum...
and Hopa
Hopa
Hopa is a city and district of Artvin Province in northeast Turkey. It is located on the eastern Turkish Black Sea coast about from the city of Artvin and 18 kilometres from the border with Georgia.-Geography:...
. South of the Pontic Range rainfall drops abruptly and in Central Anatolia dry and winter-cold conditions prevail. Approaching the southern and western coasts, the climate turns more and more Mediterranean, with mild but very rainy winters and dry, hot summers. This simple scheme is complicated a lot by the mountainous surface of Anatolia. On the high mountains harsh climatic conditions persist all the year round. There are even small glaciers on the north side of Cilo Dağ and on Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat is a snow-capped, dormant volcanic cone in Turkey. It has two peaks: Greater Ararat and Lesser Ararat .The Ararat massif is about in diameter...
.
Also in regard to edaphic conditions Anatolia’s diversity is astonishingly high. Saline soils are rather common in the driest parts of central Anatolia. But also the Aras valley between Kağızman
Kagizman
Kağızman is a town and district of Kars Province in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. The population is 17,144 as of 2010. The mayor is Mehmet Alkan.-References:...
and the Armenian border is full of impressive salt outlets, some pouring directly out of the mountains and thus resembling snow patches from the distance. In the regions south of Sivas and around Gürün large areas of Gypsum
Gypsum
Gypsum is a very soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is found in alabaster, a decorative stone used in Ancient Egypt. It is the second softest mineral on the Mohs Hardness Scale...
hills are to be found with a very special flora. A further lot of endemics have been described from the extensive serpentine
Serpentine soil
A serpentine soil is derived from ultramafic rocks, in particular serpentinite, a rock formed by the hydration and metamorphic transformation of ultramafic rock from the Earth's mantle....
areas in South-West Anatolia, especially from Sandras Dağ (Cicekbaba D.) near Köyceğiz
Köycegiz
Köyceğiz is a town and district of Muğla Province in the Aegean region of Turkey.The town of Köyceğiz lies at the northern end of a lake of the same name which is joined to the Mediterranean Sea by a natural channel called Dalyan. Its unique environment is being preserved as a nature and wildlife...
.
Main Components of the Turkish Flora
Considering species numbers AstragalusAstragalus
Astragalus is a large genus of about 3,000 species of herbs and small shrubs, belonging to the legume family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. The genus is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...
(milk-vetch, goat's-thorn; Fabaceae
Fabaceae
The Fabaceae or Leguminosae, commonly known as the legume, pea, or bean family, is a large and economically important family of flowering plants. The group is the third largest land plant family, behind only the Orchidaceae and Asteraceae, with 730 genera and over 19,400 species...
) is by far the most important genus of the Turkish flora. This may be explained by its predisposition to treeless, dry and heavily grazed habitats. Their extension augmented drastically due to human activities in historical times. Still more Astragalus species are reported from central Asia. The flora of the former UDSSR contains about 800 species. The plasticity of this genus is astonishingly high. Depending from environmental conditions a big variety of life-forms evolved, reaching from tiny annuals to small woody and thorny bushes. Speciation seems to be in plain progress in Astragalus. Nearly each of its different sections consists of clusters of closely related species whose determination is one of the hardest tasks in a closer study of the Anatolian flora. One of the most successful growth forms of Turkish Astragali is the thorn cushion, which is very characteristic for the dry mountains of inner Anatolia. Such thorn cushions were not exclusively invented by many Astragali. Really striking examples of convergent evolution are the impressive thorn cushions of Onobrychis cornuta, also belonging to the Fabaceae. But there are a lot of thorn cushions also in Acantholimon
Acantholimon
Acantholimon is a genus of small flowering plants within the plumbago or leadwort family, Plumbaginaceae. They are distributed from southeastern Europe to central Asia and also in South America, but also cultivated elsewhere in rock gardens.-Species:Species of Acantholimon include:*Acantholimon...
(Plumbaginaceae
Plumbaginaceae
Plumbaginaceae is a family of flowering plants, with a cosmopolitan distribution. The family is sometimes referred to as the leadwort family or the plumbago family....
). Even some Asteraceae
Asteraceae
The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...
(in Turkey e.g. Centaurea
Centaurea
Centaurea is a genus of between 350 and 600 species of herbaceous thistle-like flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Members of the genus are found only north of the equator, mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere; the Middle East and surrounding regions are particularly species-rich...
urvillei, C. iberica) and Caryophyllaceae
Caryophyllaceae
The Caryophyllaceae, commonly called the pink family or carnation family, is a family of flowering plants. It is included in the dicotyledon order Caryophyllales in the APG III system, alongside 33 other families, including Amaranthaceae, Cactaceae and Polygonaceae...
(e.g. Minuartia
Minuartia
Minuartia is a genus of small flowering plants, one of those commonly known as "sandwort" or "stitchwort". The genus is classed within the family Caryophyllaceae, the pink family, characterised by its opposite and decussate leaves....
juniperina) evolved in that direction.
Second in importance comes Verbascum (Scrophulariaceae
Scrophulariaceae
Scrophulariaceae, the figwort family, are a family of flowering plants. The plants are annual or perennial herbs with flowers with bilateral or rarely radial symmetry. Members of the Scrophulariaceae have a cosmopolitan distribution, with the majority found in temperate areas, including...
) and third is Centaurea
Centaurea
Centaurea is a genus of between 350 and 600 species of herbaceous thistle-like flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Members of the genus are found only north of the equator, mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere; the Middle East and surrounding regions are particularly species-rich...
(Asteraceae
Asteraceae
The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...
). For Verbascum Turkey evidently is the centre of distribution. From approximately 360 species worldwide not less than 232 are to be found in Turkey, 79,4% of them being Anatolian endemics! Most Verbascum species are protected against water losses and hungry cattle by a dense cover of tree-shaped micro hairs. Centaurea species rarely have woolly hairs, but in defence against heavy grazing developed thorny phyllaries or evolved to acaulous forms.
Vegetation
Along the northern border of Anatolia the Pontic Range forms a more or less continuous barrier against humid air from the Black Sea, causing high precipitations on the northern slopes of the PontusPontus
Pontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area, and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Πόντος...
during the whole year. Climatic conditions on the northern coast therefore resemble those in central Europe and so does the vegetation. A limited Mediterranean influence is noticeable only on a very narrow coastal strip, but almost completely missing in the North-East. In the lower forest zone often Hornbeam
Hornbeam
Hornbeams are relatively small hardwood trees in the genus Carpinus . Though some botanists grouped them with the hazels and hop-hornbeams in a segregate family, Corylaceae, modern botanists place the hornbeams in the birch subfamily Coryloideae...
(Carpinus betolus) prevails, frequently intermingled with Sweet Chestnut
Sweet Chestnut
Castanea sativa is a species of the flowering plant family Fagaceae, the tree and its edible seeds are referred to by several common names such Sweet Chestnut or Marron. Originally native to southeastern Europe and Asia Minor, it is now widely dispersed throughout Europe and parts of Asia, such as...
(Castanea sativa). Further up Oriental Beech (Fagus orientalis) and/or Nordmann Fir (Abies nordmanniana) form extensive forests. Humidity becomes extremely high in Lazistan, where the Pontic barrier culminates in the nearly 4000 m high Kackar Daği. East of Trabzon
Trabzon
Trabzon is a city on the Black Sea coast of north-eastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. Trabzon, located on the historical Silk Road, became a melting pot of religions, languages and culture for centuries and a trade gateway to Iran in the southeast and the Caucasus to the northeast...
therefore vegetation becomes somewhat sub-tropic, with a lot of evergreens on the forest grounds and tea plantations everywhere on the slopes.
South of the Pontic watershed the climate immediately gets drier. In the mountains first Abies nordmanniana, but then soon Pinus becomes dominant. In the western parts of Anatolia this is often Black Pine (Pinus nigra), in the east nearly exclusively Scotts Pine (Pinus sylvestris). Penetrating further into the central parts of inner Anatolia leads to still dryer, wintercold conditions. Today the lower parts of central Anatolia are virtually treeless. Fields on deep alluvial soils alternate with steppe on the dryer hills. But it is still an open question where and to what degree this central Anatolian steppe is due to aridity or to human forest destruction. Aridity is most pronounced around Tuz Gölü south of Ankara und and in the Aras-valley near the Armenian border. Between Kağizman and Tuzluca
Tuzluca
Tuzlucа is a town and district of Iğdır Province in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. Part of the district forms the international border between Turkey and Armenia.-Etymology:The town was later renamed Tuzluca, Tuz meaning salt in Turkish...
this valley is so dry, that here and there pure salt deposits are glittering like white snowfields from the bare slopes.
The Taurus Range forms the southern limit of the central Anatolian Plateau. Mediterranean influence is already very pronounced there, with a lot of snow in winter, but dry and warm summers. Climax forests are formed by Black Pine, Cilician Fir (Abies cilicica
Abies cilicica
Abies cilicica, or Cilicia Fir, is a species of conifer in the Pinaceae family.It is found in Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey.In 2009 at Berenice Troglodytica, the Egypto-Roman port on the Red Sea, archaeologists found: "two blocks of resin from the Syrian fir tree , one weighting about 190 g and the...
) and Lebanon Cedar (Cedrus libani). Unfortunately there has been a lot of deforestation in the Taurus, most gravely affecting the stands of Cedrus.
On the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts pronounced Mediterranean conditions prevail, with very hot and dry summers and very rainy winters. Antalya
Antalya
Antalya is a city on the Mediterranean coast of southwestern Turkey. With a population 1,001,318 as of 2010. It is the eighth most populous city in Turkey and country's biggest international sea resort.- History :...
has considerably more total precipitation than London (1071 mm versus 759 mm), but its seasonal distribution is completely different and average temperature is of course much higher (18,3°C versus 9,7°). Such conditions favour the growth of hard-leaved evergreen trees such as Kermes Oak (Quercus coccifera) and Turkish Pine (Pinus brutia). But due to massive forest destruction today hills and slopes in coastal West and South Anatolia mostly are covered with macchie. Where fertile alluvial soils prevail, e.g. in the Cilician Plain around Adana
Adana
Adana is a city in southern Turkey and a major agricultural and commercial center. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, 30 kilometres inland from the Mediterranean, in south-central Anatolia...
, there is intense agriculture.