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10 plants worth knowing

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan, the ninth-largest country in the world, consists above all of endless steppes in the north and deserts in the south – the Kyzylkum, Moyynkum and Betpak-Dala, with their saxaul forests. On its south-eastern edge rise the Tian Shan and Alatau mountains, with spruce forests and wild apple orchards. It is the homeland of many tulips and of the wild ancestor of the cultivated apple.

Hover over a plant to see on the map where it grows.

where it grows

  1. Malus sieversii 1

    tree · Symbol of Almaty – the “city of apples”

    Malus sieversii

    Malus sieversii

    Every apple in the world descends from this wild apple tree of Kazakhstan’s mountains – and Almaty’s name comes from the word for “apple”.
  2. Greig’s tulip 2

    flower

    Greig’s tulip

    Tulipa greigii

    A fiery red tulip from Kazakhstan’s Karatau mountains is the ancestor of hundreds of garden varieties with brown-striped leaves.
  3. Schrenk’s spruce 3

    tree

    Schrenk’s spruce

    Picea schrenkiana

    Candle-slim Schrenk’s spruces clothe the slopes above Almaty and surround the turquoise Kolsai Lakes.
  4. European feather grass 4

    grass

    European feather grass

    Stipa pennata

    Silvery swathes of feather grass rippling in the wind are the image of the Kazakh steppe, celebrated in song and poetry.
  5. Black saxaul 5

    tree

    Black saxaul

    Haloxylon ammodendron

    Saxaul is the “tree of the desert” – its wood is so hard and heavy that it sinks in water.
  6. Common wheat 6

    crop

    Common wheat

    Triticum aestivum

    Wheat from the fields of the former Virgin Lands has made Kazakhstan one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat flour.
  7. Scots pine 7

    tree

    Scots pine

    Pinus sylvestris

    The pine forests of Burabay above blue lakes are called the “Kazakh Switzerland” – an island of pinewood amid the treeless steppe.
  8. Schrenk’s tulip 8

    flower

    Schrenk’s tulip

    Tulipa suaveolens

    In spring Schrenk’s tulips paint the steppes of western and central Kazakhstan red, yellow and white – probably one of the ancestors of garden tulips.
  9. Silver birch 9

    tree

    Silver birch

    Betula pendula

    In northern Kazakhstan the steppe is dotted with birch copses called kolki – here white birch trunks mark the edge of the forest-steppe.
  10. Tianshan ash 10

    tree

    Tianshan ash

    Fraxinus sogdiana

    The ash grove on the Charyn River is a relic of forests from millions of years ago – it grows near the famous canyon.