The wide variety of flora species which can be found in Kyrgyzstan is due to the different landscapes, the various altitudes, the mountain ridges and the hollows formed between them which in many cases form isolated micro-environments.

In the low-lying valleys and in the low foothills, steppes prevail. In the middle mountainous zone are widely spread meadows, forests, and shrubs, whilst in the high mountainous zones alpine meadows and mountain tundra can be found.

There are about 4000 species of plants have been catalogued in Kyrgyzstan.

The most widely spreaded trees are spruce, juniper (archa), and nut- and fruit-tree forests. There are also spruce, maple, poplar-willow, and birch forests and Tien-Shan rowan-trees grow everywhere. There are walnut forests occupying an area of over 600,000 hectares, (the largest walnut forests in the world — featuring walnut-trees, apple-trees, pear-trees, and cherry-plum, cherry, currant, and rasp-berries canes), in the South-East of Kyrgyzstan in the Fergana and Chatkal ranges at altitudes between 1000 and 2200 meters a. s. l. Shrub thickets such as cherry, rosary, pistachio, almond, cherry-plum, sea-buckthorn, barberry, mellow are widely spread throughout the countryside. Sea-buckthorn, dog-rose, and willow grow in the flood-lands of several rivers.

Bright colour flowers cover the lands of Kyrgyzstan almost all warm season long. There are lots of edelweisses, dandelions, Alpine Aster, Semenov onion and primroses grow in alpine meadows (at an altitude of 3000 meters a. s. l.). Edelweiss is not as rare as it is in Europe — and dandelions are not thought of as weeds in the same way as they are in the West. At certain times of the year the mountain sides may be covered with poppies or tulips. About 5 km south to the Jety-Oguz sanatoria, is Dolina Svetov (Valley of the flowers) a valley that is ablaze with bloom from May — when there are multitudes of poppies — throughout early summer.

In the forests, steppes, and meadows it is well possible to find out variety of different funguses species. Therefore «Mushroom gathering» used to be a very common activity in these lands.

Kyrgyzstan is very famous as a larder for medical species that are especialy healthy and various in mountains in virgin untouched environment. There are such species as: ephedra, plantain, milfoil, sage, dog-rose, oregano, St. John’s wort — and many many others… Certainly, it is necessary to be very careful with such kind of plants, some of them might be far not healthy,  and even might be high poisonous species, for example, such as henbane (Hyoscyamus), monkshood (Aconitum), (Conium) hemlock and others.

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