RED BOOK: KGZ07 Besh-Tash Key Biodiversity Area

Status: VU. Relic endemic of the Western Tien Shan. Ornamental plant.

Description. Evergreen tree of the first magnitude: up to 30 m in height and up to 1 m in diameter at breast height, life span is up to 300-350 years. Crown is narrow-pyramidal, column-like, arrow-shaped or umbrella-shaped. Needles are up to 4 cm long, single, flat, linear, slightly ancipitous, the bases are slightly twisted, dark green above, below with two wide light blue stomatic stripes, on vegetative branches straight or slightly curved, on generative branches are curved, wider and hard, needles live up to 15 years. Cones are oval and cylindrical, 8-10 cm long and 3-4 cm wide. Scales are more or less broadly wedge-shaped with a hollow curved upper margin. Seeds with a short wing not exceeding them by 1.5 times.
Peculiarities of biology. Mesophyte and shade-tolerant. Propagation by seeds and layering. Seed regeneration in planted vegetation mixed with spruce is satisfactory and is weak in walnut-dark coniferous plantations. Renewal is extremely rare in pure fir forests. It grows slowly during the first years, begins to fruit in 50 - 60 years.
Distribution in country and general distribution. Western Tien Shan, slopes of the At-Oinok, the Uzun-Akmat and the Chatkal ranges, as well as in a small area in Talas (gorge of the Besh-Tash river) and Suusamyr Ala-Too, the easternmost gorges of Kyzyl-Kol and Chichkan gorges.
Vegetation area. The belt of dark coniferous forests at an altitude of 1300-2800 m above sea level; predominantly on the slopes of northern and northeastern direction, together with Schrenk spruce. On the lower border of distribution in walnut-dark coniferous forests, also along mountain river valleys, in combination with a number of trees and shrubs. Area of optimal development of fir forests, middle mountains, within the absolute heights of 2000-2500 m.
Numberedness. Fir forests have been preserved on an area of 3,7 thousand hectares in the Kyrgyz Republic, the area of planted vegetations has increased by 0,5 thousand hectares over the past 10 years, but its pure plantations are extremely rare.
Limiting factors. Systemless felling in the past. Forest fires, overgrazing, mycotic disease - cenangial cancer.
Cultivation. Cultivated in many botanical gardens.
Existing protection measures. It has been protected on the republic territory since 1975 in accordance with the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Kyrgyz SSR. Listed in the Red Data Book of the USSR (1984), the Red Data Book of the Kirghiz SSR (1985). The species is protected in Sary-Chelek Biosphere Reserve.
Recommended protection measures. Organize botanical reserves in places of the highest concentration of species.
Interesting facts: Semenov's fir can be met only in Kyrgyzstan; it does not grow in any other place on the globe. This tree is amazingly beautiful, has dense gross evergreen needles and reaches a height of 30 m.
Fir is located mainly on shady slopes with a steepness above 30 degrees, can grow on stony soils, but requires good moisture. In the south of Kyrgyzstan, in the Chatkal Range, entire forests of Semenov's fir have been preserved. Usually it grows together with spruce. Fir wood is highly valued, significantly superior in quality to spruce. It is light, soft, but very durable. In addition, a balm is made from fir resin that heals wounds, and an essential oil is made from needles, which is used in perfumery and pharmaceutical industries.

Source: Red Data Book of the Kyrgyz Republic. The 2nd edition - Bishkek city, 2007.



Ferghana Bupleurum (Bupleurum ferganense)

Bupleurum (лат. Bupleúrum) —genus of plants of the Umbelliferae family (Apiaceae), distributed mainly in Eurasia and North Africa.
Perennial or annual herbaceous plants, less commonly subshrubs and shrubs. Grows in wet meadows, on slopes and cliffs.
Botanical description of the genus: The root is powerful and rachis-like (tap).

Stem is erect and up to 1 m tall. Radical leaves are longer, the middle and upper ones are shorter than the lower ones. Cucumber-like leaves of bupleurum have a bluish tint, as they are covered with a wax coating.
Flowers have incurved petals. It blooms in June – July.
The fruit is a seed. It fruits in July - August.
Interesting facts: Some types of bupleurum have medical application. Bupleurum protects liver from any poisoning, harmful effects of hydrocarbons, emissions from petrochemical production, as well as from the effects of radioactive radiation. Bupleurum is also used after eating fatty foods and its decoctions are effective for all liver diseases (hepatitis and cirrhosis).

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Sarychelek Whitlow grass (Draba sarycheleki)

Whitlow grass genus (draba) – Draba L.
Botanical description of the genus: Perennial, rarely biennial or annual herbaceous, usually low-growing herbaceous plants, forming lush bushes or forming cushion-like tufts or carpet brushwoods. Stems are often with a woody base, vegetative and flower bearing. Flowering stems are rising above vegetative stems and usually leafless or with a few diminished leaves and occasionally leafy. Leaves are mostly collected in rosettes at the stems base and their branchings, simple, small, more or less hairy, on petioles. Cauline leaves, if present, are sessile. Brushes are apical, simple or branched, sometimes corymbose, closed and thick. Flowers are small, rarely of medium size, but always numerous, usually yellow or white, rarely lemon, purple, purple, orange and reddish. There are 4 pieces of sepals and petals and 6 pieces of stamens. The fruit is usually short, ovoid or lancet, sometimes oblong or linear, cracking, like many-seeded pod. Valves of the pods are flat or slightly swollen, with a slightly visible reticulated venation.
Phenology. It blooms in April-May or more often in June for 30-40 days exceedingly abundantly, forming a continuous flower carpet.
Interesting facts: It is cultivated since the beginning of the 18th century. 54 species are used in ornamental gardening. It is sufficiently famous in rock garden culture and it is known that some types of whitlow grass (wood (nemorose) whitlow grass) are used in alternative medicine. It was called children's celandine (Perm province), all-heal (Stachys) (Ukraine) and was used as a hemostatic, diuretic and hemocathartic remedy, which helped with children's skin diseases.

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Eugenia's Bellflower (Campanula eugeniae) Евгения коңгуроо гүлү

Status: vulnerable species (Vulnerable)
Brief description. Perennial almost bare with a branched rhizome. Branches of caudex are covered with short remnants of leaf petioles, bearing loose rosettes of leaves and flowered stems. Leaves of rosette shoots 8-10 cm long, with lancet, blades half as long as filiform petioles, smooth-margin or scattered and indistinctly creviced and bare. Stems are 10-15 cm tall and one-, rarely two-flowered. Flowers are erect or drooping, 1,5 cm long. Calyx is obconical with narrowly linear teeth, a little bit shorter than narrowly bell-shaped corolla, shallowly divided into sharp triangular lobes. The column is not showing off. Pod is short, roundish, opens with holes at the base.
Phenology. Blooms in August, fruits in September.
Ecology. Grows on limestone rocks, in cracks of marble rocks, in subalpine and middle mountain belts at altitudes of 1800-2800 m above sea level. Distribution in Kyrgyzstan. Talas, Fergana and Chatkal ranges.
General distribution. Endemic. Endemic species of the Western Tien Shan.
Cultivation. No information is available.
Designation. Ornamental plant.
Protection in Kyrgyzstan. Listed in the Red Data Book (2007).
Information source: Li (1987). Lazkov (2006), expedition data.
Lazkov et al. (2006), expedition data. Lazkov G.A., Umralina A.R. Endemics and rare plant species of Kyrgyzstan (Atlas) - FAO. Ankara, 2015.



Margarita’s Cousinia (Cousinia margaritae) Маргарита кокуй тикени

Place of growing: On scree debris or stone-free slopes from foothills to the middle belt of mountains.
Talas Region, Talas Alatau, the Besh-Tash river valley, 8.5 km southeast of Kozuchak village, the right side of the Besh-Tash river, height - 1640 m above sea level.
General biological description of the genus: It is a genus of plants in Compositae or Sunflower (Asteraceae) family. It is biennial, more often perennial herbs or shrubs with entire, pinnatisected or lyre-shaped leaves, radical leaves usually different from stem leaves, often in a rosette; stems are simple or branched.
Cousinias are very diverse in appearance. Among them are broad-leaved forms that do not have thorns. In addition, xeromorphic species - most of the representatives are armed with strong spikes and thorns. However, many of them are beautiful flowering original plants.
It is one of the larger genera of Compositae family; there are approximately 600-700 species of which are distributed in Central and Western Asia.
Interesting facts. The genus is named after Victor Cousin, French philosopher and historian.
Most cousinias have ways to save water. These are xerophytes - species adapted to life in conditions of its acute deficiency. Most often, leaf blades are exposed to changes - their area is significantly reduced for diminishing transpiration or evaporation.
Cousinias are low maintenance plants and can grow anywhere. A number of species can successfully be grown in household plots and lawns for decoration without fear of damage by livestock.
Cousinia alata (winged Cousinia), one of Cousinia species, grows in the northern regions of Kazakhstan. The content of rubber juice in it is so high that it stands out from the flower of the plant.
Sources of information: Koichubekova G.A. ENDEMIC, RARE AND THREATENED PLANT SPECIES OF THE BESH-TASH RIVER BASIN (Talas Range). SCIENCE, NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND INNOVATIONS OF KYRGYZSTAN №3, 2016

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Turkestan Kozopolianskiya (Kosopoljanskia turkestanica) Туркстан козополянскиясы

Status: VU. One of two endemic species of this genus, growing in Kyrgyzstan. Endemic species.
Description. Perennial plant, tap (rachis-like) and cylindrical root, the neck is shrouded in brown scales, the remains of dead radical leaves. Stems are solitary, or 2-3 in number, branching from the very base, bare, glaucous, 40-60 cm in height. Leaves are mainly radical, short and petiolular, their blades are oblong in outline, doubly pinnatisected, primary lobes are linear, the lobes are spathulate, and stem leaves with a diminished blade, with sheaths. Umbrellas are 10 - 18 - flowered, umbels are 15-flowered, with wrap and involucel. Flowers of lateral umbels are often sterile. Fruit: dry type; dry seed. Fruits are ovoid, octahedral, by ripening break up into 2 semi-fruit, bare.
Peculiarities of biology. Blossoms VI, bears fruit VII. Seed propagation VI.
General distribution and distribution in the country. It was found in the upper reaches of the Talas river, in the Ortok-Too and Uch-Bulak mountains, on the Alai Range (the Ak-Buura River valley) and in the Inner Tien Shan (the Dzhumgal River valley near the conflux with the Kokomeren River) in Kyrgyzstan.
Vegetation area. Grows on dry shale rockslides, stony fine earth and conglomerate slopes, on variegated salt-bearing clays.
Numberedness. There is no data available.
Limiting factors. It is possible that mature fruit are washed away by rainwater and fall into unfavorable conditions - in hot foothills and valleys.
Cultivation. There is no data available.
Existing protection measures. Listed in the Red Data Book of the USSR (1978); Red Data Book of the Kazakh SSR (1981); Red Data Book of the Kirghiz SSR (1985).
Recommended protection measures. Establishment of botanical reserves in the gorges, with the highest concentration of population. Finding new locations.
Source: Red Data Book of the Kyrgyz Republic. The 2nd edition - Bishkek, 2007.

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Korovin’s Nervoplodnik (Neuroloma korovinii) Коровин невроломасы

Botanical description of the genus. Belongs to the Cruciferae family. The main name is Pillow Parrya (Neuroloma pulvinatum).
Parrya (lat. Parrya) is a genus of herbaceous plants of the Cruciferae family (Brassicaceae family).
It is perennial herbaceous plants. Leaves are whole or pinnatipartire. Flower arrow is often leafless.
Sepals are spaced, lateral at the base and often saccular. Petals are large, with a long unguis, purple or white. Filaments of stamens are free, without teeth or crevices. There are short stamens, one is annular with outwardly open honey gland around the base. Ovary is sessile. Column is short. Stigma is bilobed. Fruit is an oblong or linear pod flattened from the back; valves are flat, with clear median vein, reticulate-veined. Seeds are two-rowed or one-rowed, flat, winged or wingless. Cotyledons are flat; marginal germ.
Vegetation area: Grows on rocks, rocky slopes and passes in the upper belt of mountains.
Interesting facts: The genus is named after William Edward Parry (1790-1855), English explorer of the Arctic.
Parryas are ornamental perennial herbaceous plants that form thick carpet tufts from numerous dense rosettes of leaves, decorated with abundant showy flowers. It is used as an unpretentious ground cover plant, as well as for rocky hills. It is cultivated since the end of the 19th century. 4 species are used In ornamental gardening. It is not commonly distributed.

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Dyer’s Goldendrop (Onosma trachycarpa)

Distribution: The species is widely distributed on the former USSR territory up to 53° of north altitude. There are about 150 species of goldendrop, which are distributed mainly in dry regions of the Mediterranean and Western and Central Asia to Western China.
Botanic description:
It is species of flowering plants in Goldendrop (Onosma) genus of Borage family (Boraginaceae).
Biennial herbaceous sod-forming plant. Peduncles are 20-70 cm high. Each plant has several of these stems. Stems are erect, strongly branched, covered with hairs in the form of bristles 1-3 mm long. Lower leaves are 3-15 cm long and 3-15 mm wide, elongated or oblong and spade-shaped, covered with lumpy bristles at the end and base. Leaf margins and the main vein are also downy.
Inflorescences are strongly branched. Pedicels are 1-2 mm long; bracts are about the same length as the calyx. Initially, it has a length of 6-11 mm, stretching up to 12-20 mm in flower maturation process. Corolla is 8-12 (rarely up to 15) mm long, pale yellow, often with purple spots, bare or slightly downy. Its length is approximately 1 1/3 of the calyx length.
Fruit is a smooth nutlet 3-4 mm long.
Biology: Rosette herbaceous monocarpic perennial plant. Belongs to the “tumbleweed” life form; at the end of the season, a strongly branched spherical generative sprout breaks off and disperses seeds during the rolling. It grows in sandy, meadow steppes. Blooms in June; ripe fruit are in July. Propagated by seeds. Populations are extremely small (usually up to 100 generative individuals).
Limiting factors. Livestock grazing, road construction, erosion of sandy steppe areas with increased recreation.
Protection measures. Protected within the "Gnezdovka" stow (Sakmarsky district). Research should be carried out on species largest populations for subsequent establishment of specially protected areas for sustainable conservation of these areas. It is necessary to control the state of populations. In can be grown in botanical gardens.
Interesting facts: Some types of goldendrop are actively used both in official and traditional medicine for therapeutic purposes. Leaves, flowers and stems of the plant are drug raw materials. Due to the components included in its chemical composition, Bractea godlendrop has a strongly marked sedative, hypotensive, diuretic effect, lowers blood pressure, and calms central nervous system.

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Sovetkina’s Richteria (Pyrethrum sovetkinae) Советкин поповниги

Botanical description of the genus: Feverfew (lat. Pyréthrum) is a genus of perennial herbaceous plants of the Aster family, or Compositae (Asteraceae) family.
Popular names of genus are Romashnik and Popovnik. Plants from this genus are often simply called chamomiles, like plants from other genera of the Aster family.
Pyrethrum stems are erect, branched and downy. Plants 5-150 cm tall. Leaves are alternate, pinnatisected and rarely whole. Flowers are small, in capitulums, solitary or collected (2-40, rarely 100) in a common corymbose inflorescence; marginal flowers are pistillate, ray, disc flowers are androgynous and tubular.
Vegetation area: On rubble slopes, granite rocks in the upper belt of mountains. Richteria is close to edelweiss in terms of endurance. Amazing in beauty, it climbs high on the crests of ridges and mountain peaks, where there is not even soil, and proudly throws its flower to the sun. Richteria grows only in the highlands, not lower than three thousand meters and up to 4200 meters above sea level, and blooms in sky-high heights throughout the summer.
Interesting factors:
Pyrethrum has been used as an insecticide for centuries in Persia and Europe. Some types of pyrethrum accumulate pyrethrins, substances that are poisonous to insects and other invertebrates.
The genus got its scientific name because of beneficial properties of some of its representatives; it comes from the Greek word “pyretos” (“heat”, “fever”). Parthenolide, the active substance found in the plant, is being investigated for therapeutic activity.
2 closely related species are cultivated for decorative purposes: Pink pyrethrum, or Persian pyrethrum (R. roseum, formerly P. carneum), and Caucasian pyrethrum, or florist’s pyrethrum (P. coccineum, formerly P. roseum). Costmary chrysanthemum is also used as an insecticidal plant, P. parthenium is cultivated as a curb ornamental plant.

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Popov's skullcap (Scutellaria popovii) Поповдун текөөрчеги

Botanic description of the genus: Skullcap (lat. Scutellaria) is a large genus of herbaceous plants of the Lamiaceae, or Lamiaceae (Labiatae) family. Representatives of the genus are found all over the world, except for Antarctica. It is perennial or, very rarely, annual herbs, occasionally subshrubs or shrubs, with pubescence of simple hairs, with stems woody at the base and herbaceous at the top.
Leaves are petiolate, of various shapes, crenate or dentated, rarely entire or almost dissected.
Flowers are one or two in the axils of leaves or are collected in spiciform or racemose inflorescences at the tops of stems. Calyx is campanulate, two-lipped, with entire, widely rounded lips, of which the upper one has a depressed transverse comb, the posterior segment disappears after fruit ripening. Corolla with long, outwardly bent tube and two-lipped limb; labrum helmet-shaped, concave, with 2 lateral lobes at the base; the lower one is solid, flat, shorter or longer than the upper one. There are four stamens, ascending, with ciliated anthers contiguous in pairs; the anterior ones are longer than the hind ones, single-celled, the posterior ones with two splayed pollen sacs. Style is with bilobed stigma.
Fruits are flattened-spherical or ovoid, mostly warty, often dowry, rarely smooth nuts. Ripe skullcap fruits at the slightest touch shoot and scatter seeds. Embryo with curved root.
Vegetation area: Grows on rockslides in the alpine belt of mountains.
Interesting facts: Skullcaps are used in traditional medicine and are a source of unique biologically active compounds with valuable pharmacological properties.
Skullcaps are used for landscaping mixborders, rock gardens and rockeries. They can be divided according to plant height into two types: tall (bushy, up to 60-70 cm) and undersized (ground cover, forming clumps, not higher than 15-25 cm).

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Author of the photo: Olga Bondareva.