The Caucasus mixed forests span the Greater and Lesser Caucasus ranges and the eastern Pontic Mountains, reaching across Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russia, and Turkey. Temperate broadleaf forests of oriental beech, oak, hornbeam, and chestnut dominate lower elevations, giving way to dark coniferous forests of Caucasian spruce and Nordmann fir higher in the montane belt. The climate is temperate to continental and varies sharply with elevation, with the wet western reaches receiving far more rainfall than the drier eastern areas. This is a biogeographical melting pot holding one of the highest levels of endemism in the temperate world, home to wildlife such as the West Caucasian tur, brown bear, and Persian leopard. Above the timberline, alpine meadows mingle with thickets of the endemic Rhododendron caucasicum, one of several native rhododendrons of horticultural interest from this region.

At a glance

About the temperate broadleaf & mixed forests biome

Four-season forests of deciduous hardwoods — oak, maple, beech — often mixed with conifers, shaped by warm summers and cold winters. Trees leaf out in spring and color in autumn; the generally fertile soils have made these forests heavily settled and farmed.

Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion

Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's CHELSA-derived current zone range, with the CHELSA mid-century warming delta applied for the projection. Plants whose stated range falls outside both the current and projected zone end up dropped; the rest land in one of the three buckets below.

Collections for this ecoregion

Curated multi-plant collections whose members all fit this ecoregion's zone range — no won't-grow members smuggled in. Overall fit class shown per collection is the weakest link across its members.

Related ecoregions