Regional Flora

the natural vegetation characterizing a corresponding flora zone (tundra, forest, steppe, desert). The most typical spots for regional flora are level, elevated, well-drained watershed plateaus (plakory). Usually the regional flora predominate over other (nonregional) types of vegetation. Only in some cases, for example, in broad, poorly drained depressions with isolated elevations or in places where there are sharp changes in moisture conditions due to the microtopography, is the regional flora weakly expressed or absent altogether.

The regional flora include a large number of plant formations and associations that succeed each other within the bounds of the region going from north to south and correspond to climate changes. (On this basis, greatly extended regions are divided into subregions.) Most of the lands formerly occupied by regional flora (mainly in the steppe and forest steppe) are now used for agriculture.