In West Asia naturally wild vegetation no longer occurs in clearly defined zones but is dispersed in small areas. The region is predominantly arid; desertlike depressions such as the Kyzylkum Desert of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the Karakum Desert of Turkmenistan, and the Rubʿ al-Khali (Empty Quarter) of the Arabian Peninsula contrast with the moist, forested mountains that lie between them. Three climatic zones, however, characterize West Asia: a continental climate in the northern regions; a dry zone, except where northerly winds bring moisture to the mountains, to the south; and a Mediterranean climate along the western edges.

A few examples of the variety of vegetation associated with those climatic zones may be cited. In the Karakum Desert grows a strange xerophytic tree, the saxaul, which is oddly shaped, gnarled, and leafless; it is widely used for firewood, and its young sprouts make excellent fodder for camels. Between the galleries of saxauls the desert is interspersed at wide intervals with bushes and tufts of grass. A fringe of steppe covers the area between the Fertile Crescent (which sweeps in an arc from the Tigris-Euphrates valley to the Mediterranean) and the north and west of the Syrian Desert. With more than 2,000 species of plants—more than in the whole of the Sahara—the borders of the Syrian Desert are noteworthy for their floral variety. The moist northern slopes of the Pontic Mountains in northern Turkey are covered by magnificent forests of beeches and conifers, with an undergrowth of tall cherry laurels, hollies, and creepers. That type of forest is also found in Georgia and on the northern slopes of the Elburz Mountains in Iran. Along the Mediterranean border of Asia, the natural vegetation is similar to that in other parts of the Mediterranean region: holm oak (an evergreen oak), Aleppo pine (used in shipbuilding), cistus, mastic tree (which yields mastic, an aromatic resin), and other species are found in landscapes of thick underbrush and open scrubland. Extensive forests, with such species as the cedar of Lebanon, once grew in that region, but logging and heavy grazing by livestock have reduced many once-forested areas to grassland and scrubland.

Vegetation in traditional civilization

Asia’s indigenous vegetation has provided many of the world’s food crops—including most of the cereal grains, oilseeds, fruits, and vegetables—and its lands provided one of the great cradles of agriculture. Three primary centres for the domestication of those plants have been postulated. One was in the southwest, consisting of sites in the Levant and northern Syria, southeastern Anatolia, Transcaucasia, and the Zagros Mountains. Wild strains of wheat, barley, certain legumes, cherry and peach trees, and grapevines were domesticated in those regions. The second centre was in the south and east (northeastern India, peninsular Southeast Asia, the Sunda Islands of Indonesia, and southern China), where rice, root crops such as taro and yams, and fruit trees such as bananas and mangoes were domesticated. The third centre was in northern China and adjacent regions, where foxtail millet, soybeans, and hemp were first cultivated.

Asian plant life also has provided building materials, such as wood, bamboo, and thatch; ramie and flax for clothing and hemp for rope and sacks; bamboo, widely used in the making of utensils; and the bark of the paper mulberry, used in the manufacture of bark cloth and paper. In addition, silkworms are fed mulberry leaves; lacquer is made from the lacquer tree (Rhus vernicifera); and a multitude of other items are obtained from plants, including many drugs and pharmaceuticals.

Human impact on natural landscapes

Agriculture (both rain-fed and irrigated), livestock grazing, and forestry have transformed Asian ecosystems. Three areas have undergone the greatest modification by agriculture: the broad band of predominantly wheat, corn (maize), and barley cultivation across southern Siberia and northern Kazakhstan; a large belt of wheat, corn, millet, and soybean cultivation across northern China; and the monsoonal zone of rice cultivation that stretches from India through Southeast Asia and South China to the Korean peninsula and Japan. Agricultural landscapes predominate in those regions, and natural vegetation is confined to rugged terrain. The impact of human activity in the arid regions is intensive in the irrigated areas of Mesopotamia, Middle Asia, the Indus River valley, and scattered oases. Pastoral activities have had a major impact on the vast belt of Asian steppes and deserts from the Arabian Peninsula to the Gobi and on the scrublands and former woodlands of the Asian Mediterranean region.

Areas with some of the least-disturbed ecosystems occur in northern and eastern Siberia, the Plateau of Tibet, and the mountain ranges of Central Asia. By contrast, areas exhibiting some of the most drastic changes to natural conditions include the eastern margins of the Thar (Great Indian) Desert in South Asia, Inner Mongolia and the Ordos region in China—all of which have been subject to intensive desertification from livestock overgrazing—and the Aral Sea basin in Middle Asia. Regarding the latter, large-scale irrigation for cotton cultivation reduced the flow of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, which feed the sea, and thus severely reduced its area; a toxic mixture of salts and pesticide residue from the dried seafloor has been spread by dust storms throughout the region.