The Herbarium of Tajik National University

The Republic of Tajikistan is located in Central Asia between latitudes 36о 40‘ and 41о 05‘ N and longitudes 67о 31‘ and 75о 14‘ E, on the same latitude as Greece, Southern Italy and Spain. It encompasses an area of 143,100km stretching 700km from east to west and 350km from north to south. The country borders on the People’s Republic of China, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. South-eastern Tajikistan is only separated from Pakistan by a narrow strip of Afghan territory 15-65km wide. The terrain in the west of the country is hilly desert and semi-desert. To the east the elevation rises to form the highest mountain systems in Central Asia – the Tien Shan and the Pamirs.(www.tdc.tj) Mountain peaks are the source of numerous tributaries which flow into Tajikistan’s main rivers – Syr Darya, Panj and Vakhsh (the Amu Darya begins at the merging of these two rivers). Most of the border with Afghanistan follows the Panj and Amu Darya Rivers. Three majestic mountainous ranges mark the country: the Tien Shan, the Alai, and the Pamir Darvoz, with elevations ranging between 300 and 7,495m above sea level. The region is generally divided into the following natural zones, with climates ranging from dry subtropics to areas of perpetual snow: – lowlands - plains – 400-500m; – low-altitude – 500-1,000m; – medium-altitude – 1,000-2,000m; – high-altitude – 2,000-3,500m; – highest-altitude – 5,500-7,400m. Tajikistan is 93% mountainous with more than half of the country sitting at altitudes over 3,000m above sea level. Several well-known mountain peaks are over 7,000m, such as Ismoili Somoni Peak (formerly Communism Peak, renamed in 2000) – 7,495m, Lenin Peak – 7,134m, and Eugeniya Korzhenevskaya Peak – 7,105m. Many others over 6,000m are situated here. The Pamir plateau, which is around 800km long, with altitudes ranging from 5-7,000m above sea level, is known as the highest region in Central Asia (apart form Tibet). The Pamir region, also known as the “Roof of the World”, can be described as a large high-altitude plateau with wide, flat-bottomed, grassy (and sometimes swampy) valleys, with slow rivers and streams.(www.tdc.tj) The area of Ismoili Somoni Peak is frequently considered to be the Pamir mountain junction, from which other great mountain ranges stretch in different directions: the Himalayas and Karakoram ranges to the southeast, the Hindu Kush to the south-west, Kunlun Shan Lake Big Allo. Fan mountings to the east and the Tien Shan to the north-east. These mountains were formed more than 100 million years ago as a result of powerful tectonic movements in the earth’s crust.