A forest out of time
In the arid, rocky expanse of southeastern Kazakhstan, about 200 kilometers east of Almaty, lies a biological paradox. The Charyn Ash Grove is a dense forest of Sogdian Ash (Fraxinus sogdiana) that thrives on the floodplain of the Charyn River, deep within a semi-desert canyon. This grove is a relict ecosystem, a survivor from the Paleogene Period, when the climate was far wetter and such forests were widespread. As the climate cooled and dried during the Quaternary period, the deep canyon began to form around 350,000 years ago, creating a unique microclimate that sheltered this small population of trees from the surrounding desertification.
The grove itself covers an area of about 5,000 hectares, though pure ash stands make up a smaller portion of this. It is a patch of green in an otherwise red and brown landscape. The Sogdian Ash is exceptionally resilient, capable of withstanding the high salinity and dryness of the floodplain soils. Some individual trees in the grove are estimated to be over 300 years old, reaching heights of 25 meters with trunk diameters up to 1.5 meters. The grove's existence depends entirely on the Charyn River, which flows from the Tian Shan mountains and provides a constant water source in the arid environment.