|
 The
semi-isolated and boundary geographical position has stipulated
the diversity of flora on the Crimean peninsula.
On the one hand, the peninsula has been served
as a bridge connecting different florae of the Mediterranean, Asia
Minor, Caucasus, East European plain. Due to this, the Crimea, and
especially its mountain part, abounds in tremendous diversity of
flora. Therefore, absolutely close to each other, you can see the
ordinary pine and evergreen small-fruit madroce, ferns and astragaluses,
yew berries and hanging birches.
On the other hand, in remote mountain places,
it is possible to observe the vegetation, that long ago disappeared
from the Apennines, Pyrenean and Balkan peninsulas where the vegetation
was exposed to active influence of humans for some thousand years.
It has been preserved in the mountainous Crimea, because there were
no intensive cultivation of peninsular nature in the past.
The continental connections of peninsula were
interrupted in the recent geological epoch, and it became an island.
Isolation of the Crimean flora and fauna has been kept up to now:
biologically, Crimea is an island, as the salted waters of Sivash
are an insuperable barrier to the majority of species of not only
plants, but also of animals. An independent process of species formation
has been in process in the Crimea.
On the whole, there are about 280 endemic species
(10 per cent of the flora) in the Crimea. Among them are:
- the chickweed of Biberstein (it is more known
as "the Crimean edelweiss", widely spread on yailas,
Crimean flat summits - mountain pastures);
- the maple of Steven;
- the cyclamen of Kuznetsov;
- the hawthorn Poyarkova (it is met only on
Kara-Dag Mt.);
- some kinds of thymes;
- the snowdrop folded.
Now the natural vegetation of Crimea totals 2775
species of wild growing plants. Add to them cultivated plants -
and the figure will increase up to 3500 species. It is about 60
per cent of Ukrainian flora! Their major amount is concentrated
in the mountain part - that is a real botanical museum!
A biological variety of the Crimean peninsula
is its wealth to be proud of and to preserve. The Crimea is unique
in Ukraine, and one of eight European regions recognized as the
world centers of a variety of plants by International Union for
Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
 In
foothills, stretching like an arch from Sevastopol up to Feodosia,
the forest-steppe zone is situated. It is formed by meadow steppes,
thrickets of bushes (such as hawthorns, hornbeams, blackthorns,
etc.) and low oak woods.
The forest zone begins at the height of 350-400
m. It is formed by various kinds of oaks (the fuzzy oak and the
durmast.) There are a lot of cornel, privets, euonymus and other
bushes in the oak forests. At the height of 700-800 m, oak woods
are replaced with beech and hornbeam woods. They are tall-trunked,
rich, shady and mysterious woods. The forest zone stretches upwards
to the edges of hills, but the mountain summits are practically
woodless .
On a southern slope of the Crimean Mountains
a different high-altitude zone of vegetation is formed.
Rising up the mountains from the south, from
the sea coast, you can see, that the seaside zone (from the sea
level up to the height of 350-400 m) is represented by short oak
and juniper woods. They consist of the fuzzy oak, high juniper,
pistachio tree, Sudak pine, and even evergreen deciduous species
- the small-fruit madroce, cistus and butcher's-broom.
In process of populating the Southern coast,
the native vegetation was replaced with parks and other plantations
of decorative and fruit plants brought to the Crimea. Many "newcomers"
- cypresses, cedars, magnolias, palm trees and other species - has
become Crimean "natives".
The vegetative cover of the Southern coast changes
with height. Mountain slopes up to 1000-1100 m are covered with
pine (in the western part of Southern Coast) and oak woods (to the
east of Gurzuf.) The Crimean pine, or the pine of Pallas, forms
huge large forests above Alupka and Yalta. This pine differs from
ordinary pine by grey color of the trunk, the greater hardiness
to droughts and fires. It grows faster and has much in common with
the Calabrian pine growing in Italy.
 At
the height of 1100-1300 m there is a zone of beeches and ordinary
pines. You can find very old, (200-250-years old) plantations of
great scientific value. If you go up you will find meadow-steppe
yailas.
But Crimean woods are famous not only for their
beauty and variety. Being an element of peninsular ecosystem, they
have the important functions - to keep and regulate the surface-water
supply, protect the soil cover on slopes from washout and erosion,
form the clean air environment that is especially valuable for climatic
resorts.
The territory occupied by woods comprises 13
per cent of all Crimean territory ,and 50 per cent of it is the
mountainous part (in the countries of the Mediterranean region these
parameters are much lower - 7 and 19 per cent accordingly.)
Flat Crimea is covered with steppe vegetation
(the fescue, feather grass, koeleria and other cereals and grasses.)
Cereal steppes, because of small amount of precipitation and salinities,
are replaced with dry semidesertic steppes (wormwoods, statices,
fescues, etc.) at the coast of Sivash. On Tarkhankut heights and
on the Kerch peninsula, small shrubs and subshrubs (thymes, germanders,
sunroses) are spread.
There are 164 species of Crimean plants in the
Red Data Book of Ukraine. Among them there are such Crimean kinds
as: the high juniper, butcher's-broom, small-fruit madroce, Sudak
pine, yew berry, hanging birch (the only grove has been preserved
by now), two-floral tulip, narrow-leaved crocus, cyclamen of Kuznetsov,
thin-leaved peony etc.
Similar to the Red Data book, the lists of ecosystems
that are under the threat of extinction are being made today. Such
lists are called the Green Data Book of Ukraine. Among the vegetation
that require protection, there are Crimean woods of the high juniper,
Pizunda (Sudak) pine, birch, yew and pistachio trees, etc.
|
