Memories of Eden?-The Fruit Tree Forest of Central Asia

A once extensive forest with an abundance of wild fruit trees (progenitors of domestic apple, pear, cherry, apricot and more) once extended from the Tian Shan Mountains of Kazakhstan through Iran, Turkmenistan, Georgia, and Armenia, finally reaching a western limit in Anatolia. Only relict stands remain, which are high priority for conservation. This center of crop ancestral diversity was first recognized by Vavilov as one of his “Centers of Origin” but the full range of this forest type is only recently appreciated as in the book by Spengler. A chance encounter with a stand of this forest in Iran led me to research the composition and extent of this forest, its dispersal, and its fate. This forest, with its abundance of fruit trees, crossed from northern Mesopotamia to the foothills of the Himalayas in ancient times and may have been the source for the mythical Garden of Eden.