Step on the grass in the Steppe

The Eurasian steppe is the possibly the world’s largest connected ecosystem. It is a huge belt of treeless plains which spread through the northern temperate zone. I thought of it as an expanse of grass through which horsemen and pastoral nomads drove east and west, constantly changing the otherwise fixed history of cities and cultivation. But when you step on it you see what a diversity of plants it supports.

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Within three steps I found two kinds of grasses, four different flowering plants, and a moth. I guessed that the small pink bulbous flower on a stalk near the long crinkled leaves was probably a wild tulip. This is the original home of tulips after all. I couldn’t recognize any of the other flowering plants. The numerous birds in the area told me that I was definitely missing a lot more of the diversity hidden in this flat and open land. The grasslands of Eurasia have a beauty in the large, which I have tried to show before. In the small they have a beauty which I have tried to capture a slice of in this post. All the photos here were taken close to the Sorbulak lake near Almaty in Kazakhstan.