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2 ﻥﺎﻫﺎﻴﮐ ﺔﻋﻮﻤﺠﻣ ﻓﺍﺮﻐﺟ ﻭﻴﺎﻱ ﺗﺎﺒﻧﻲ 2 Flora and Vegetation Geography
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„Symbolae Afghanicae“ )RECHINGER KOEIE 1954–1963( K.H. RECHINGER (1963 ff.) 97 .
2.1 Introduction
Afghanistan is a very mountainous country with a wide range of
ecological conditions and has a correspondingly wide range of
plant species and vegetation types. This diversity is enhanced by
its location at the crossroad of several biogeographical regions.
With their widely differing floristic stock, these greatly contribute
to the floristic richness and vegetation pattern of the country.
Afghanistan, in essence, is a country of Central Asia (see
below). It is also essentially a very dry country with sparse
precipitation (see chapt. 1.5) during winter and early spring,
followed by a prolonged summer drought, but varying significantly
between north and south, west and east, lowlands and mountains.
Temperature conditions are characterized by a strong
continentality, with hot summers and cold winters, easily
recognizable in the ecological climate diagrams shown in Figs.
1.26 and 1.31 from various parts of the country. Whereas the
mountains get substantial amounts of snow in winter and rain in
spring, precipitation is much less and more unreliable in the
northern and southern deserts and semi-deserts.
Some eastern parts receive episodic or even periodic summer
rain from monsoonal activity. That additional rainfall during the
vegetation period provides the precondition for the occurrence of
various forest types. Today, sadly, these forests and woodlands
are much degraded or have even completely disappeared.
In this chapter, an outline is given of the main floristic
features of the country and its vegetation types (Fig. 2.1).
Because the terms Central Asia, Middle Asia, and Inner Asia
have different meanings for different researchers and in different
countries, we give here our definition of them. Central Asia (s.l.)
includes Middle Asia, Inner Asia and Central Asia (s.str.). Often
Central Asia and Middle Asia are used as synonyms. However, in
German and Russian geographical literature, Middle Asia mainly
refers to the former Soviet states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,
Kirgisia, Turkmenistan, western part of Tajikistan and the lowlands
N of the Hindu Kush (N-Afgh). Inner Asia refers to the mountain
regions between the Altai and Sajan in the N and South-Tibet
(Himalaya) in the S, the Pamirs in the W and middle China in the E,
including Tuwa (Siberia), i.e. the largest highlands and mountains
of the world. Central Asia (s.str.) covers the Tien Shan mountains,
the former E-Turkestan, Xinjiang and Mongolia, and thus partly
overlaps with the term Inner Asia. In this book, we use the term
Central Asia in the wide sense, use recognised geographical
names, and try to avoid ambiguous political terms.
2.2 Flora of Afghanistan
2.2.1 General remarks on biodiversity
A reliable Flora or at least a check-list of the plants occurring in
Afghanistan has not yet been published. But by far the most
comprehensive information source for the flora of Afghanistan is
the monumental multi (97 !)-authored Flora Iranica (Fl. Ir.) edited
by K.H. RECHINGER (1963 ff.), and its incomplete forerunner, the six
parts of the Symbolae Afghanicae (KOEIE & RECHINGER 1954-1963).
S-W. BRECKLE, H. FREITAG, I. C. HEDGE, M. D. RAFIQPOOR
2
Flora and vegetation geography 3
178
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1970 ) 2 9 .( )PODLECH ANDERS 1977 ( KITAMURA )1960 .( . . FREITAG )1971a, b ( . BRECKLE )1971 1974 1975 ( . . 9 . .