Sights of Altyn-Emel Park and travels through them -
Botanical tourism and tours in the Altyn-Emel Nature Reserve -
Altyn-Emel Park is not only mountains, sands and ancient things. It is also an amazing world of plants that have managed to survive and flourish in the harsh conditions of the steppes, deserts, mountains and rocky valleys. Here you can find the rarest species listed in the Red Book, endemics and real living relics that survived the glacial ages. The Park is a unique botanical paradise, where on a huge territory of 460 thousand hectares there is an amazing diversity of plant communities. Here you can simultaneously see typical desert landscapes with saxaul groves, blooming spring steppes covered with a carpet of tulips, and rich mountain ecosystems of the Dzungarian Alatau with relict apple forests.
The park's flora includes about 1,800 plant species, making it one of the richest regions in Central Asia in terms of biodiversity. Of particular value are endemic species that are found nowhere else in the world, as well as plants that have survived here since ancient geological eras. Among them, the Sievers apple tree stands out - the wild ancestor of all cultivated apple trees, growing in mountain gorges. These ancient apple forests are a real living open-air museum.
In spring, the Altyn-Emel Park is transformed when the endless steppes are covered with bright spots of blooming Schrenk tulips and Greig tulips, scarlet poppies, blue irises and yellow buttercups. The "Singing Dune" looks especially impressive, surrounded during this period by a flowering carpet of desert plants. In the mountainous areas, you can find juniper thickets, which in some places form real forests, filling the air with a healing aroma. Of particular interest is the Ostrovsky tulip, which grows only in these places. Along the river valleys stretch groves of turanga poplars - ancient trees that can survive in severe drought. Their intricately curved trunks and silvery foliage create unique landscapes.
The uniqueness of the flora of "Altyn-Emel" is also in the fact that plants have survived here that have almost disappeared in other regions due to human economic activity. For example, feather grass steppes, which once covered vast areas of Kazakhstan, can now be seen in their original form only in such protected areas. Of particular value are the medicinal plants that locals have long used in folk medicine - various types of wormwood, licorice, St. John's wort and many others.
Botanists especially value this region because here, in a relatively small area, you can observe almost all types of plant community’s characteristic of Central Asia - from typical desert formations to subalpine meadows. At the same time, many of the park's plants are of great scientific importance as genetic material for breeding new varieties of cultivated plants resistant to drought and disease. Seasonal changes give the park's flora a special charm. If in spring the bright colors of flowering ephemeroids dominate here, then in summer the landscape takes on silvery-golden shades of drought-resistant cereals and wormwood. In autumn, the mountain slopes are especially beautiful, where the leaves of wild apple and hawthorn are painted in crimson tones. Even in winter, the park does not lose its appeal - the bare branches of saxaul and poplar create bizarre graphic patterns against the background of snow.
The flora of Altyn-Emel continues to amaze researchers - every year new plant species are discovered here or those considered extinct are found. This unique natural complex requires special protection, since many of its plants are on the verge of extinction and are listed not only in the national Red Book, but also in international lists of rare and endangered.
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