Photos in this gallery are by John and Hilary Birks, long standing Greentours customers who have been with us to the Tien Shan on three seperate trips. The Tien Shan lie between Siberian taiga and central Asian deserts, and have a very rich flora consisting of European, Siberian, central Asian, Chinese, Mongolian, and Himalayan elements, plus many endemics. It is a plant geographical ‘meeting-point’.
Over 5750 vascular plant species have been recorded of which 14% are endemic. We were guided by Anna Ivanschenko and Vladimir Kolbintzev, both outstanding local botanists and all-round natural historians – John and Hilary Birks
