Flora of Turkey
The flora of Turkey consists of almost 10,000 species of plants, as well as a number of fungi and algae. Around 32% of Turkey's plants are found only in the country. One reason for the high proportion of endemics is that Anatolia is both mountainous and quite fragmented. The country is divided into three main floristic areas: the Mediterranean, Euro-Siberian, and Irano-Tranian area. The flora of the European part of Turkey is similar to that of adjoining Greece. The ecoregions here include Balkan mixed forests dominated by oaks, and Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests where some of the main species are oaks, strawberry tree, Greek strawberry tree, Spanish broom and laurel. The country is at a meeting point of three phytogeographical regions Mediterranean, Euro-Siberian, and Irano-Turonian. The region played a key role in the early cultivation of wheat, other cereals, and various horticultural crops.
The Euro-Siberian area is a mountainous part of western Turkey. Here the flora transitions from the Mediterranean vegetation type to the Anatolian plateau. The dominant vegetation cover here is forests of oak and pine, especially Anatolian black pine and Turkish pine. Further east is the Anatolian plateau, a largely treeless area of plains and river basins at an average altitude of 1,000 m (3,300 ft). This area is characterised by hot dry summers and cold winters. Salt steppes and lakes are found here, as well salt-free grassland areas, marshes and freshwater systems. Immediately around the large Lake Tuz and other saline areas, saltmarsh plants grow, and beyond this is a sharp divide, with the flora being dominated by members of the families Chenopodiaceae and Plumbaginaceae.
The mountainous eastern half of the country is separated floristically from the rest of the country by the Anatolian diagonal, a floral break that crosses the country from the eastern end of the Black Sea to the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea. Many species found to the east of this break are not found to the west and vice versa, and about four hundred species are only found along this divide. The natural vegetation in eastern Turkey is the Eastern Anatolian deciduous forests; in these oaks such as Brant's oak, Lebanon oak, Aleppo oak and Mount Thabor's oak predominate in open woodland with Scots pine, burnet rose, dog-rose, oriental plane, alder, sweet chestnut, maple, Caucasian honeysuckle (Lonicera caucasica) and common juniper.
Most European species are found in Turkey. The most important reasons for the high plant biodiversity are believed to be the relatively high proportion of endemics, together with the high variety of soils and climate of Turkey.
In Anatolia the Pleistocene glaciations only covered the highest peaks, so there are many species with small ranges. In other words: Anatolia as a whole is a big “massif de refuge”, showing all degrees of past and recent speciation.
Naturally much of the vegetation would be steppe and forest, however people have cleared much forest and their animals have changed the vegetation by grazing.