In article .com, "Andy
MPLS 44:59:56 N - 93:19:3.018 W" wrote:

At least both of us aren't in Iraq, there's nothing green there,
Sandstorms, and 140 degree summers. AND, THAT's without bombs and
bullets whizzing all over.

America's war against Iraq is a bad thing, sure, but botanically Iraq is a
fascinating place. A number of native tulip species, unique strains of
cyclamens, wild daffodils, fritillaries, irises, scillas, galanthus. A
number of medicinal plants used throughout the near east are native to
Iraq, & in less troubled times herbal remedies were Iraq's #1 non-wood
forestry export for Ephedra, Achillea, aromatic astragalus, wormwood,
sages, bachelor buttons, licorice root, cleome, & other herbals, much else
explored in H. L Chakravarty's THE PLANT WEALTH OF IRAQ.

For a large area of the country conditions are similar to those for a
large area of the American Southwest including Texas, Arizona, & northern
Mexico, hardly places devoid of interesting native plantlife. But Iraq is
surprisingly large & diverse in terrain so there are alpine zones in the
north, wetlands all along the Tigris & Euphrates & lesser river
ecosystems, the Zagros Mountain oak forests descending into a dry steppe
forest. The broadleaf & conifer forests along the Turkey/Kurdistan borders
are famed for figs, dates, cedars, oaks, & dwarf pines (in better times
Iraq was one of the top-two exporters of dates & figs second only to
Egypt). And coastal brackish marsh ecosystems. Many areas that are hot &
dry for summer & autumn are extremely rainy & cool winter & spring, so
simply burst into flower for part of the year.

Over half Iraq is desert, but that still leaves at least 40% varied
ecosystems, including 13% of the coutnry which is forest. Even the vast
desert regions have variety from lush oasis ecosystems to desert
shrublands. Dead-center in the "worst" desert wilderness gazelles & ibex
manage to find enough plantlife to thrive year-round, & though rain is
sparse, when it does rain the landscape turns into a pallet of
fast-growing annuals that explode into color, toss seeds, & the seeds wait
for the next rainfall.

A famous southern Iraq marshland -- which Saddam did try to destroy in the
1990s because an ancient marshland tribe was rebellious -- is making a
surprising recovery all on its own since the levies Saddam built to
destroy the land have been blown up to restore the wetlands. The area has
been identified by religious archeologists as the site of the original
Garden of Eden, kept lush by the Tigris & Euphrates. And of course, the
famed Hanging Garden of Babylon was located in an area that is today Iraq.

Surprisingly the main threats to Iraqi plant species has not been war but
commercial collecting of bulbs which adapt to European climates pretty
well & are hugely in demand by us rich decadent westerners; plus
urbanization, & clearcutting of forests (presently largely for fuel, but
there was intense commercial clearcutting during 1990s). War's
contribution is that it creates so much chaos that bulb poachers can do
pretty much whatever they want. Yet the worst time for the forests was in
the 1990s when the most destructive deforestation projects were overseen
by Saddam looking for alternate sources of wealth; commercial forestry
collapsed in 2001, if anything "good" can be imagined to have come out of
the vietnamization of Iraq.



-paghat the ratgirl
--
Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt he
http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to
liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot." -Thomas Jefferson