WILD FLOWERS AT BAIKAL

The southwestern shore of Baikal in vicinity of Listvyanka and Bolshie Koty village is mostly a steep slopes with rocky cliffs dropping strait to the water. The shore is dissect with the narrow and not deep folds, a variable degree developed river valleys and feebly formed lake's terraces The beach and pebble zone is rather absent, or faintly marked.

All these types of ecotope characterized with their own special kind of vegetation.

At the steep rocky slopes there are two main types of the plants: floristically poor open xerophilous weeds and steppe zone flora (so called Baikal steppe), characterized with high species variety, a great number of beautiful, decorative and medicinal herbs and flowers.
The folds are mostly occupied with the forest and grassland kind of plants, characterized with little species and phenotype variety. In the first part of the summer one can see here: - Trollius asiaticus, Pyrola asarifolia, P.rotundifolia, Maiantchemum bifolium, Borgenia crassifolia, Allium victorialis, some kinds or orchids - Cypripedium macranthon and Cypripedium guttatum.
The river valleys are mostly covered with the grassland plants, forming the multi-colored carpet. There are only few beautiful and interesting plants here: - Sanguisorba officinalis, sometimes - Lilium martagon.
The lake's terraces are mostly occupied with forest and grassland kinds of plants, or their transitional forms. In the early - middle July one can see here flourishing - Lilium martagon, Scabiosa comosa, Paris, Pyrola asarifolia, P.rotundifolia, Maiantchemum bifolium, seldom orchids and other original plants.
The most interesting are the south steppe slopes, where in the early - mid July one can see highest possible number of beautiful and rare flowers and herbs:

Hemerocallis minor
Lilium pumilum
Rhaponticum uniflorum
Veronica incana
Thymus serpellum
Eritrichium sericeum
Orostachys spinosa
Oxytropys coerulea
Polygonatum odoratum
Sedum aizoon, S. purpureum
Sanguisorba officinalis
Delphinium grandiflorum
Vicia venosa, V.unijuga
Valeriana alternifolia
Saxifraga bronchialis

There are also interesting kinds of ferns on the rocky slopes: - Dryopteris fragrans and Polypodium verginianum.
From the typical steppe plants, remarkable are some kinds of absinth:

Artemisia gmelinii
A.dracunculus

And gramineous plants:

Agropiron Gaertner calense
Koeleria cristata
Stipa baicalensis
S. sibirica

For the FLOWER WATCHING TOUR, please contact our managers, or look into ADVENTURE TOUR TO LAKE BAIKAL and IRKUTSK.