Vascular plants mountain near
Muğla, was described as new to science in 1995. A third of Turkish plant species are endemic to Turkey: one reason there are so many is because the surface of Anatolia is both mountainous and quite fragmented. In fact, the Anatolian mountains resemble archipelagos like the famous
Galapagos Islands. Since
Darwin we know that geographic isolation between islands or separated mountains is an important means of
speciation, leading to high spatial diversity. For Anatolia this assumption is confirmed by concentrations of endemism on highly isolated and relatively old
massifs such as
Uludağ and Ilgaz Dağ, whereas very young volcanic cones such as
Erciyes Dağ and Hassan Dağ are surprisingly poor in endemics.: gypsum and serpentine areas are exceptionally rich in endemic species For a visitor from Central Europe, climatic diversity within Turkey is quite astonishing. All climatic zones present in Europe can be found in Turkey on a somewhat smaller scale. The
Black Sea coast is humid all year round, with the highest rainfall between
Rize and
Hopa. South of the
Pontic Range there is much less rain so Central Anatolia is dry; also it is cold in the winter. Approaching the southern and western coasts, the climate turns more and more Mediterranean, with mild but very rainy winters and dry, hot summers. This simple scheme is complicated a lot by the mountainous surface of Anatolia. On the high mountains, harsh climatic conditions persist all the year round and, , there are
glaciers in Turkey, for example on
Mount Ararat. Anatolia's diversity of
soils is astonishingly high. Saline soils are quite common in the driest parts of central Anatolia; additionally, the Aras valley between
Kağızman and
Armenia is full of impressive salt outlets, some pouring directly out of the mountains and thus resembling snow patches from a distance. South of
Sivas and around Gürün there are extensive
gypsum hills with a very special flora. A further lot of endemics have been described from the extensive
serpentine areas in South-West Anatolia, especially Sandras Dağ (Cicekbaba D.) near
Köyceğiz. The
Anatolian diagonal is an ecological dividing line that runs slant-wise across central and eastern Turkey from the northeastern corner of the
Mediterranean Sea to the southeastern part of the
Black Sea. Many species of plants that exist west of the diagonal are not present to the east, while others found to the east are not in the west. Of 550 species analysed, 135 were found to be "eastern" and 228 "western". Besides the Anatolian diagonal forming a barrier to floral
biodiversity, about four hundred species of plant are endemic to the diagonal itself. ,
Eastern Anatolia region. Quçan region is completely
brown soil. Other places are semi-brown and consist of different types of soil. With almost 400 species the genus
Astragalus (milk-vetch, goat's-thorn;
Fabaceae) has by far the most species of the Turkish flora; as historically humans have dramatically expanded its favored treeless, dry and heavily grazed habitats. But not as many as
Central Asia: the former
USSR has twice as many. The plasticity of this genus is astonishingly high. Depending on environmental conditions a big variety of life forms evolved, ranging from tiny annuals to small woody and thorny bushes. Speciation seems to be in plain progress in
Astragalus. Nearly all of its different sections consists of clusters of closely related species whose determination is one of the hardest tasks in a closer study of the Anatolian flora. One of the most successful growth forms of Turkish Astragali is the thorn cushion, which is very characteristic of the dry mountains of inner Anatolia. Such thorn cushions were not exclusively invented by many Astragali. Really striking examples of
convergent evolution are the impressive thorn cushions of
Onobrychis cornuta, also belonging to the Fabaceae. But there are a lot of thorn cushions also in
Acantholimon (
Plumbaginaceae). Even some
Asteraceae (in Turkey e.g.
Centaurea urvillei, C. iberica) and
Caryophyllaceae (e.g.
Minuartia juniperina) evolved in that direction. Second in importance comes
Verbascum (
Scrophulariaceae) and third is
Centaurea (
Asteraceae). For
Verbascum Turkey evidently is the centre of distribution. Of approximately 360 species worldwide no less than 232 are to be found in Turkey, almost 80% of them being Anatolian endemics! Most
Verbascum species are protected against water loss and hungry cattle by a dense cover of tree-shaped micro hairs.
Centaurea species rarely have woolly hairs, but in defence against heavy grazing developed thorny
phyllaries, or evolved to have no visible stem or a very short one.
Non-vascular plants There are over 700 species of moss.
Fungi There are over 12,000 varieties of mushroom in Turkey, some of which are edible.
Algae There are over 2000 taxa of freshwater algae. == Vegetation types ==