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BOTANICAL TURKEY TOURS
Dear Friends,
My name is Yasemin
Konuralp and I live in Turkey.  I enjoy hiking, trekking and photographing.
Working as a tour leader for 20 years, I started to be interested in wildflowers
of Anatolia. This interest inspired me to study and learn more about the wildflowers
of Turkey. Finally I reached to a big collection of photographs and knowledge
about the endemic and common flowers of Turkey.
My husband Cemil
Konuralp and I, founded our travel company Runner
Tourism & Travel in 1994 to operate
archaeological tours, gulet cruising tours, besides botanical tours in Turkey.
I am in the progress of
writing a book of Turkish wildflowers. The main reason to give
this decision is to help to stop the dissappearing of endemic or common
plants in Anatolia by providing a guidebook for the travelers and the locals
of Turkey. I believe people will protect and claim the natural values,
whenever they have more knowledge about the plants.
 Turkey is suffering from
the bulb hunters. The country has long been famed for its bulbs. It has
the richest variety in the world, with greater numbers of Fritillaria,
Crocus, Colchicum and Cyclamen. This wealth mirrors the general
richness of Turkish flora, which total some 10000 species, as against 12000
species in the whole of Europe. Over 3000 of them are endemic plants while
it is only around 2000 in Europe. This diversity stems principally from
Turkey`s geographical position; sandwiched between the steps of Central
Asia, the deserts of Syria, the cold afforested mountains of Central Europe,
and the Mediterranean to the west.
At the turn of the century,
commercial collectors from Europe scoured the Turkish hills and the mountain
sides in search of new and exciting flower bulbs. Even the locals being
paid to help them for collecting. At the height of the trade some 71 million
bulbs  were exported in one year-including over 11 million winter aconites
(Eranthis hyemalis), 10 millon Grecian wind flowers (Anemone
blanda), and a staggering 30 million snowdrops (principally Galanthus
elwesii). This is not this century`s problem, mass collecting started
as early as 17th century. As a result of all these, we have already lost some of
the endemic species and some of them are endangered.
Galanthus elwesii was
just about to disappear and eventually, by the help of the sensitive botanists
and naturalists, the locals being encouraged to plant these bulbs (more
than collecting from the nature)
in their gardens and since
than we can find some in the wilderness growing in collonies naturaly.
If you are interested to spend
your vacation on a botanical tour, combined with the visits of the archaeological
sites in Turkey, please send me a message to get the detailed itinerary.
In 2008 I have one regular
departure trip but anytime you want we can arrange a customized Turkey tour together.
Yasemin Konuralp
This site is © Copyright Yasemin Konuralp 2007-2008, All Rights Reserved. |
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