Vegetation

The diversity of the terrain and climatic conditions contributed to the enormous wealth of the Turkish flora, which has adapted to the opposites between central Anatolia and its outskirts.

On the Black Sea coast, we find boreal forms, that is, northern, also characteristic of Central Europe. Only here, when considering all of Turkey, forests are so abundant. They are deciduous and mixed forests, and they reach up to height 1900 m n.p.m. From the first group we can meet oaks here, party, poplar, chestnuts, graby, elm and hazel, and sometimes even ebony! However, it is mostly hazel that reigns here (even massively exported), whose huge groves we can see from the bus windows, moving along the coast. Spruces grow here from conifers, pines and firs, and these trees occupied the areas above 500 m n.p.m. Rhododendrons and azaleas grow higher in the mountains. The Black Sea region is also rich in various grasses, climbers and shrubs, and of arable crops, tea is an indisputable dominant. Tea boxes, covering the slopes of low mountains, can be found in and around Rize, and a monument in the center of the city – a huge kettle pouring symbolic tea into an equally large cup (actually water, because the monument is also a fountain). In addition, cereals are grown here, mainly rye and wheat, and also some vines and lots of fruit trees. It is especially beautiful here in spring and autumn, valleys and plains turn into colorful carpets covered in spring with lush grasses and blooming flowers, and in the fall with colorful trees.

A different plant image is found in the west and south (apart from central Anatolia) from the eastern area of ​​the Pontic Mountains. The landscape here is typically Mediterranean, olive and fig trees dominate, the forests encountered here are heavily thinned pine and fir forests. Pines are among them, foreign, often cedars and oaks, peanuts, mulberries (silkworm breeding), as well as oleanders and banana trees (rarely wild, but in arable fields and greenhouses). We also meet plane trees, wild citrus trees (also plantations) and poplars. There are also many palm trees, a lot of all kinds of shrub trees, including agaves and rhododendrons. The lush greenery does not last long here. Already the strong June sun can completely burn it out, so that only colorful shrubs and conifers dominate the landscape. Cotton is grown in the west and south, exported to many countries.

Central Anatolia looks very poor. The endless barren steppes are covered with almost eternal burnt grasses and bushes (among them hawthorn and blackthorn). Stepy te, in the midst of which there are marshes and salt lakes, they are poor in meadow flowers, and in some places calamus or reeds grow only in wetlands. Only in the lowlands we can find some flowers, stunted aspens and beeches, and only in greener ones, that is, humid river valleys – poplar, mulberries or plane trees. In such valleys there are sometimes small fruit orchards with apricot trees, peach and cherry, which seems even debauchery in this hostile not only for fauna and flora, but also for the human environment. Tree clusters are practically only in the mountains, and very rarely. Because not only lakes are salty, but also the soil (most south of Ankara), so farming is not easy here. The north-eastern areas are saturated with black earth, crops are grown there, potatoes and sugar beet. Corn that is easy to grow is very popular. We find vineyards all over Turkey, but most in the western part of central Anatolia. Grapes in the vicinity of Kayscri have caught up well, on volcanic soil. Melons and watermelons occupy an important place among fruit crops, which are exceptionally sweet here.