Andriy Yena

The Crimean taxon at issue has long been known as Stankiewicz pine with continuing discussion around its taxonomical rank and origin. In 1995, the authors discovered the new isolated population ofthe taxon on Papayakaya Mt. in Crimean Sub-Mediterranean. Due to hypothetical paleogeographic reconstruc- tion ofPleistocene coastal landscapes here, together with some newest taxonomical data, authors reinforce the notion of relict and infraspecific status of the taxon that should be related to Pinus brutia var. pityusa.

Estimates of the number of narrow Crimean endemics have been revised over 30 times since 1856 and have varied strongly, ranging from 10 to 300 species. According to the author's recent revision, endemics in the Crimea number approximately 130 species and subspecies. Comparisons with similar in size regions indicate that the estimate of the Crimean vascular plant endemism presented here is plausible.

In the world of environmental science, the Crimean Peninsula has long been treated as an obscure, ‘half-blood’ land. Situated between temperate and subtropical zones, the Balkans and the Caucasus, and at the junction of the European and Asiatic civilizations, in many respects, Crimea shows unclear duality. Thus far, the region has been explored predominantly by Saint-Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, and Simferopol scholars. This book is not just the first comprehensive monograph in English on Crimea’s natural and related cultural history; it is also written by an experienced global geographer. Professor Cordova worked in Crimea and collected data concerning the region for a period of 14 years. He is fluent in Russian and other languages, which makes him well placed to convey relevant research by Russian and Ukrainian scientists to Western readers unfamiliar with Cyrillic-alphabet languages. I would recommend this book to both Englishand Russian-speaking readers including non-academics. The monograph consists of 12 chapters with the subject matter arranged as follows: general review (Chapter 1), history of research (Chapter 2), natural history (Chapters 3, 4, and 10 pro parte), environmental history (Chapters 5–8), human impact and conservation (Chapters 9, 10 pro parte, and 11), and what I would call a ‘blood relation test’ (Chapter 12). In these 12 chapters, the author develops seven main dialectical themes: isolation and connection of the peninsula, sea–land interactions, impact of glacials and interglacials, forests and steppes, diverse ethnic groups in a diverse landscape, landscape transformation and conservation, and the Mediterraneanization of Crimea. Chapter 1 gives trailer-like descriptions of concepts that are developed in later chapters. The author makes the point that even up-to-date data about Crimea are rooted in historical interactions of human societies and geography and that this is what epitomizes the Crimean environmental history. Chapter 2 gives an overview of the long history of environmental study of the region from antiquity to present, using time frames such as the Linnaean and Darwinian periods, and Soviet and Post-Soviet eras. Significant global parallels are also drawn, for example, between Catherine the Great’s Russian Empire and Thomas Jefferson’s United States, which are helpful in the sense of needs for exploration of natural resources in newly acquired lands. In my opinion, no key figure has been omitted in this review. Chapter 3 describes the physical environment of the Crimean Peninsula from regional to global, and ancient to modern perspectives. It highlights the region’s tectonic setting between the Scythian Plate and the Alpine System, and it looks at landforms (plains and mountains), origin of rocks (volcanic/sedimentary), and features relating to climate and soils, including possible Mediterranean traits. The author even explains the local geomorphological terminology for some well-known types of landscapes (such as yaila – plane summits; Tartar for ‘plateau’). Chapter 4 is devoted to Crimea’s nature. The peninsula’s plant life forms and vegetation types are reviewed. It describes how floristic duality is most conspicuous here and it highlights the unusual rareness of two typical trees of the boreal and Mediterranean forests: silver birch (Betula pendula Roth) and strawberry tree (Arbutus andrachne L.). The local native fauna described by the author is an interesting mix of Palearctic species that mirrors the distribution of flora on the continent. Chapter 5 elucidates regional events that took place during the ‘Ice Age’. The author points to the lack of glacial activity in the Crimean Mountains and its possible implications for the formation of refugia and the presence of Neanderthals and modern humans in this region. This theme is further elaborated in Chapter 6 where the author focuses on the Pleistocene–Holocene transition in Crimea, particularly through the analysis of his own substantial pollen data sets. ‘These records show that climatic conditions in Crimea during the Holocene fluctuate in parallel with global climatic trends’, writes Professor Cordova (p. 105). In this light, the re-evaluation of the famous Black Sea Flood theory deserves special attention, along with several lesser known environmental questions (e.g. Was Yaila originally treeless or forested?). The changing human cultures in changing landscapes remain the leitmotif of this part of the book (and Chapters 7 and 8). A great number of tribes and nations with their chiefs are mentioned here, many of unusual mixed origin such as the legendary half-Greek, half-Persian Pontian King Mithridates VI Eupator, or the Greeks, Goths, Alans, Tatar-Mongols, and Italians, all of which blended into the modern Crimean Tatars. Fundamental scientific and economic developments began in the 18th century. The most rapid development of industry and agriculture occurred in the second half of 19th century, and the most…

This article shows progress in the selection of Hedera cultivars. Seventeen new ivy cultivars are described in detail, comparing them to existing similar cultivars. They are 'Andreas', 'Bizar', 'Darth Vader', 'Ederalai', 'Eny', 'Frisé', 'Hulk', 'Irina', 'Konstantin Efetov', 'Laurence', 'Nabar-Nabar', 'Nilita', 'Papa Yena', 'Petrovich', 'Sasha', 'Troll Panaché' and 'Yarik'. Among them, fifteen are cultivars of H. helix and two are cultivars of H. maroccana . Thirteen were selected by first author and four by the second author. It should be emphasized that there have only been three cultivars of H. maroccana known until now. The cultivars described are the result of the authors’ investigation and collaboration during last decade. These unusual and promising sports were found in the wild, in parks, collections and trade and were further examined of the...

There are two morphologically similar and closely related eastern species of lizard orchids of the Eurasian Himantoglossum Sprengel (1826: 694) that, according to current literature (Sundermann 1980, Buttler 1996, Kreutz 1998, Baumann et al. 2006, Delforge 2006), can easily be distinguished by anthocyanin markings on the labella (‘lips’) of their flowers, H. caprinum (Marschall von Bieberstein 1819: 602) Sprengel (1826: 694) is said to have papillate red spots on the lip, whereas H. affine (Boissier 1882: 56) Schlechter (1918: 287) lacks such marks. We consider the length of labellar papillae as another character separating them; the former has up to 0.5 mm long papillae, whereas in the latter they rarely reach 0.1 mm. Furthermore, two quantitative morphological characters consistently mentioned in the literature are said to show little if any overlap between—and therefore be diagnostic of—the two species: (i) the length of the lateral lobe of the labellum, and (ii) the length of th...

This conspectus was extracted from the monograph by A.V. Yena “Spontaneous Flora of the Crimean Peninsula”, the first critical review of the Crimean vascular flora’s diversity in the 21st century. It contains data on 2536 species and subspecies in 5 divisions, 127 families and 760 genera.