The Central Anatolian steppe and woodlands ecoregion occupies the high interior plateau of Asian Turkey, spanning Central Anatolia and embracing cities such as Ankara, Konya, Kayseri and Sivas, bounded by the Pontic Mountains to the north and the Taurus Mountains to the south. Its character is dry deciduous forest interspersed with shrub steppe, where downy and Aleppo-type oaks (Quercus pubescens and Quercus infectoria) predominate, junipers (Juniperus oxycedrus and Juniperus excelsa) and Anatolian black pine (Pinus nigra) hold the higher ground, and steppe is woven from Artemisia, Achillea, Astragalus and related herbs. The climate is semi-arid and strongly continental, with hot, dry summers and cold, snowy winters and annual rainfall of roughly 400 to 600 mm. Forests that once covered roughly half the region now cover less than ten percent, leaving an anthropogenic steppe; the ecoregion is rated vulnerable and harbors endemics including the plants Muscari adili and Astragalus beypazaricus, while the great bustard serves as its flagship species. For gardeners, native grape-hyacinth (Muscari) and milkvetch (Astragalus) point to drought-tolerant ornamentals at home in this dry continental setting.

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