FLORA. The vegetation of Ukraine evolved through long geologic epochs and through many developmental phases before it attained its present form. In the Paleocene and Eocene, Ukraine had a tropical and subtropical flora. Palms, cinnamon trees, figs, laurels, eucalyptus, sequoias, and other trees grew in Ukraine. In the mid-Oligocene Mediterranean plants began to spread gradually to Ukraine, including oleander, pomegranate, beech, maple, and poplar. In the Miocene the vegetation generally assumed a temperate broad-leaved or broad-leaved-coniferous character, with a preponderance of deciduous forms such as beech, oak, and walnut. Gradually the flora changed to temperate warm-climate vegetation. In the Pliocene most of Ukraine was covered with forest vegetation. Among the evergreens were species of pine, with an admixture of hemlock, spruce, fir, and others; and among deciduous trees were birch, oak, hornbeam, maple, chestnut, walnut, and magnolia. The southern region was covered with steppe grasses...

Flora

FOREST. One of the basic types of vegetation groupings, consisting of trees and shrubs and covering an extensive area. Forests have an effect on climate; the hydrological regime of the soil and the environment; the retention of surface soils, particularly on steep slopes and sands; and the composition of flora and fauna. Forests also have an enormous economic and esthetic importance. The degree of forestation and the variety of forest species in Ukraine are determined by Ukraine's geographical position between the humid region of Western Europe and the dry steppes of Asia. The forests in the western part of Ukraine have a Western European character; in the southern part small woods rather than forests are found. As Ukraine's climate, relief, soils, and water regime change from the west and north towards the east and south, large differences arise in the extent of forestation and the composition of the forests. The eastern and part of the southern limits of dispersal for such tree species as the fir, spruce, beech, hornbeam, and ash dissect Ukraine...

Forest

FOREST-STEPPE. A natural belt characterized by the alternation of forests--mostly deciduous--with steppe vegetation and fauna. In Ukraine the forest-steppe is the central belt stretching between the forest belt in the north and the steppe belt in the south. It is part of the Eastern European forest-steppe and covers about 30 percent of Ukraine's territory. The boundary with the forest belt (Polisia) runs along the line Lviv-Kremianets-Zhytomyr-Kyiv-Nizhen-Hlukhiv and is distinct. Northwest of the main forest-steppe belt lies a large forest-steppe island called the Volhynia–Kholm forest-steppe. In the west the forest-steppe borders on a belt of forests of the Central European variety, covering Roztochia, the Sian Lowland, Subcarpathia, and the Opilia Upland. The southern border of the forest-steppe is not as distinct and is defined in different ways. The Ukrainian forest-steppe is a gently undulating plain, covered for the most part by a thick, loess stratum that overlies various geological layers dissected by gullies and ravines...

Forest-steppe

STEPPE. A term, originally applied to the natural grasslands of Southern Ukraine, which has been generalized to designate any natural grassland plain with a temperate, semiarid climate and chernozem or chestnut soils. The Ukrainian steppe encompasses most of the western segment of the Eurasian steppe that is known as the Black Sea (or Pontic) steppe province. The province forms a wedge, delimited by the forested foothills of the Crimean Mountains and the Caucasus Mountains in the south, the forest-steppe zone to the northwest, and the drier, more continental steppes east of the Volga River. The steppe thus occupies about 240,000 sq km (40 percent) of Ukraine, nearly 300,000 sq km (40 percent) of the compact Ukrainian ethnographic territory, and 460,000 sq km (48 percent) of both compact and mixed Ukrainian national territory. The steppe, endowed with the greatest heat resources in Ukraine, has the longest growing season, but receives the least precipitation and often suffers from drought...

Steppe

PARK. A tract of wild or cultivated ground set aside for recreation. Larger parks, such as nature preserves, wildlife refuges, and national parks, are set aside by the state for the purpose of conservation and scientific research. Smaller parks or gardens are maintained by municipalities for decorative and recreational purposes. Specialized botanical gardens and zoological gardens and parks usually belong to scientific institutions and serve scientific ends. The earliest parks in Ukraine, dating back to the Princely era, were either royal hunting preserves or gardens cultivated by monasteries and princes. Private parks appeared only in the first half of the 18th century. They were designed in the Italian baroque or the French style, with a symmetrical composition and a clearly defined center. A large number of parks were established in the second half of the 18th and at the beginning of the 19th century. Almost all of them were of the landscape or English type, based on the principle of free planning with the fullest utilization of natural conditions...

Park

MEDICINAL PLANTS. Using plants for scientific medicine or folk medicine is known as phytotherapy. The roots, tubers, bulbs, leaves, flowers, seeds, and bark of medicinal plants are selectively used in making teas, infusions, tonics, juices, tinctures, powders, and poultices. About 80 percent of the ingredients in drugs for heart disease, gastrointestinal or nervous disorders, and other grave illnesses are taken from medicinal plants. A great number of plants have been used in Ukraine from time immemorial for the prevention or cure of sickness in humans and animals alike. Since the Second World War over 20 research institutions connected with medical and pharmaceutical institutes and universities have conducted research on medicinal plants in Ukraine. The Kharkiv Pharmaceutical Institute plays a leading role in this field. The gathering of wild plants and the cultivation of medicinal plants have expanded, and the research on new plants has led to the introduction of many foreign species and the adoption of many plants by official medicine...

Medicinal plants