Türkmenmetbugat

"Ekologiýa medeniýeti we daşky gurşawy goramak" žurnaly

Founder: Ministry of Agriculture and Environment of Turkmenistan
Adress: Ashgabat, Bitarap Turkmenistan Avenue., 15
Telephones: 94-17-24

Download the magazine in PDF version

Articles

On the Garabogazgol Expanses

The Caspian region is an endless expanse of sandy areas, saline to varying degrees, the eolian (“Eol” from ancient Greek is the god of sands) material of which was brought by the wind from the side of the Chilmammetkum sands, plateaus, or kyrs with gypsum outcrops, table-like uplands, depressions with saline lands and rocky geological formations. On top of the continental strata, there is a layer of soil of various thickness, the mechanical structure of which determines the composition and condition of the vegetation. The territories directly adjacent to the Caspian Sea and the Garabogazgol Bay differ in their original, unique landscapes. Their look cannot be confused with other parts of the Karakum Desert – the endlessly stretching plains are unique and unusual for the eye, it is difficult to capture so much space and the high sky! When you visit those places with scientific assignments, doing your usual geobotanical work, you never get tired of admiring the landscapes, in which you can always find something new for yourself, some key element of the area. This little-explored region can be attractive to the tourism sector, its harsh beauty will be appreciated by those who are not afraid to get away from the noise of paved roads. And although there are not so many historical sites, there are plenty of monuments that nature has created, the incredible beauty of which

28 April 2023

About spring...

When one flower blooms, spring awakens everywhere.

31 March 2023

Spring planting campaign launched in Turkmenistan

«7/24. tm», № 13 (148), 27.03.2023. On March 18, the spring tree planting campaign was launched in Turkmenistan. President Serdar Berdimuhamedov took part in the tree planting action.

26 March 2023

Mount Iron

The natural complex of the Great Balkhan ridge is of great interest to biologists, local historians, geologists and tourists. This is a grandiose combination of many large and small canyons and long talus, gently sloping and steeply falling, up to vertical cliffs of a linear and stepped nature a hundred or more metres high, open “circuses” at the beginning of some gorges, sharp ridges, rocky “glasses” – vertical multi-metre cylindrical gullies created by relict water flows, karst caves and holes. Among such a variety of forms of mountain formation are amazing monuments of nature. So, in the chain of the western spur of the central ridge at the beginning of the Duz Mergen tract, there is a mountain, which the people aptly call iron. This is a limestone layer steeply “falling” to the south with an angle of incidence of up to 40°, stretching for almost a kilometre. From a distance, the blade-like ridge resembles an iron standing on the ground. But there is a second correspondence, which more vividly meets the name.

10 February 2023

About the Magic Power of Plants

The medicinal properties of plants have been known for many centuries and have been successfully used in folk medicine, prolonging human life. The Turkmen land is rich in healing flora and people studying it. Pharmaceutical folk knowledge is supplemented by legends about the magic power of cult plants, sometimes created on the verge of superstition. Such “evidence” can be found in ancient legends, fascinatingly told by the ethnographer Sergei Demidov in the book Plants and Animals in the Legends and Beliefs of the Turkmen. It cites little-known sacred stories. The legend about bagshy Baba Gambar, the patron of all singers and musicians, whose life to some extent echoes the fate of the Populus pruinosa, or toraňňy, called “dutar gullagy” by the Ersary tribe, sounds exciting. According to the established tradition, anyone who wanted to become a professional singer or performer of melodies had to perform the song Şahy-Merdan in a certain sanctuary, playing the musical instrument, and then to stay in that place until morning. Only selected subjects in the dream state could see the images of a lion and a snake. Before those who did not succumb to fear, Gambar himself appeared and served him a drink. Here it was necessary not to blunder – to drink everything completely to become a singer, or to pour everything onto hands to become a musician. Another tree of Popu

10 February 2023

“I want to see Dehistan…”

Next year, the world will celebrate the 300th birth anniversary of the outstanding Turkmen poet and thinker of the East Magtymguly Pyragy. Preparations for the upcoming anniversary of international importance are the focus of attention of the President of Turkmenistan Arkadagly Serdar. In this regard, the interest in the rich historical, cultural and creative heritage of the poet, whose life is inextricably linked with Magtymguly and Etrek etraps in the Balkan velayat is growing. There is a well-known saying that that every hare has a dear hill, which, in particular, the poet writes about in his autobiographical poems.

3 February 2023

Mountains on the Plain

The Balhan Mountains – Great and Small – are often called “mountain islands” due to their isolation, they look like that from a bird’s eye view: two huge stone “stumps”, overgrown with mountain juniper that came on a boundless plain from nowhere. These mountain formations are surrounded from all quarters by the desert – sandy, clayey and saline, therefore they contrast with the surrounding environment, which makes these places unique, and need conserving. There you can find natural grottoes, Jebel and Damdam-Cheshme, and the Kurtli-Bil gorge that people visited even in the Middle and Late Stone Age, which is scientific evidence of the earliest human settlement in Central Asia. The Iron Age natural monument is the Garavuldepe cult complex on the top of Arlan, the oldest temple of the “sun and sacred fire” (7th-2nd century BC). Traces of the medieval fortress Duneshkala (10th-16th centuries) between Jebel and Oglanly have been preserved. There, two karst caves with the Lower Cretaceous carbonate deposits – Tuz-Mergen and Lyama-Burun –were also discovered. The walls of the latter are laid up with marble onyx.

3 February 2023

New pages of archeology of Turkmenistan

Every year in June our country celebrates the Day of Science. Owing to the efforts our Esteemed President Serdar Berdimuhamedov all branches of science of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan develop intensively. In this regard, both compatriots and others are pleased to report that the staff of the Institute of History and Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan continues to discover new and interesting things during excavations, thus replenishing the collection of its museum. Every year archaeological research is carried out in spring and autumn. But the pathfinders of the history of the Archeological Research Institute of the same name, for example, the participants in the excavations, working there, of course, only by vocation, and therefore motivated, found it expedient to end this archaeological season a little later. This is on the eve of the commemoration of the day of science, which has become another incentive to work, which was pleasantly provoked by the newly noticed carefully recovered finds. In a word, for almost the entire first ten days of June, every year [on weekdays, since the weather "allowed from morning until the onset of heat], we complete the excavations. The Turkmen people say: «If you get up early, you would have a good day». At this stage, our institute is conducting more than one field study on objects of retro-culture, once create

3 December 2022

Time to Plant Trees

Large-scale tree planting activities, which have become a good tradition of beautifying and decorating the homeland with our labour, started again. Ecologists, foresters and thousands of volunteers across the country aim their long-term activities to put into practice the national motto “Let’s turn Turkmenistan into a blooming garden!” This year’s autumn planting season is a good finish of the year, as most of the three million trees and shrubs were planted this spring. The start date of activities is set each year depending on the weather, in the spring – with enough time before the onset of heat, and in the autumn – when the weather becomes colder. In recent years, deciduous species, including fruit trees and grapevines, have been planted in large numbers, since planting deciduous trees has practical benefits for horticulture development. In natural conditions, plantings in the suburbs and around recreational facilities protect from the winds and provide shelter, food for birds and other small animals and shade for herbaceous plants.

18 November 2022

Useful Fruit from a Prickly Bush

In early autumn, red barberry beads gleam in the sun with an amber shine along the mountain paths of the Small Balkhan Mountains. The fruits are ready to be harvested – it is time to store the vitamin tea collection. They taste sour, but they are of great value for maintaining appetite, they have immune-stimulating properties; according to pharmacists, they can lower blood pressure and improve the circulatory system. From these small berries one can make jam, compote, syrup, or tincture. Barberries in the wild can grow everywhere within the middle mountains of the country, including the slopes of the Balkhan Mountains – Small and Great. Recently, they have been trying to grow it for landscaping purposes in a cultural form in irrigated plantations, including land plots of the Landscaping Directorate of the communal services of the administrative centre of the Balkan velayat. However, it is the mountain barberry that accumulates the most healing “powers for health” and, picked in natural conditions, is especially valuable.

14 October 2022

In the Expanses of the Karakum Desert

The largest arid zone in Central Asia and the second largest in the world after the Sahara is the Karakum Desert. Unlike the Arabian and other deserts devoid of vegetation, it is mostly covered with tree and shrub vegetation, or desert forests, which form a kind of ecosystem with their natural and climatic features and biological diversity. Vegetation cover has largely retained its natural character, the constant renewal of which shows the adaptive properties of ecosystems and their ability to withstand the effects of climate change. In this regard, work on environment protection, the rational use of the natural resources of the desert and the reduction of the impact of anthropogenic factors continues.

9 September 2022

To Protect Endemics and Rare Species of Flora

The compilation of the next, fourth, edition of the Red Data Book of Turkmenistan, which taxonomists often refer to when studying the biology of rare species, is at the final stage. One of the compilers of the scientific work of the flora section is the senior research worker of the laboratory of forest and pasture ecology of the National Institute of Deserts, Flora and Fauna of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment Protection of Turkmenistan Guljamal KURBANMAMEDOVA. For readers of the newspaper, the scientist explains the nuances in the general concept of rare plant, offering to expand the boundaries of understanding of such a status, because the identification of a low abundance of a species does not always clearly indicate the need to take measures to protect it: “The small number of plants with a limited habitat due to anthropogenic causes is understandable; it arises under the influence of various forms of human economic activity or from recreational loads. If we consider the rarity of species of natural origin, then it can be conditioned by various factors; scientists divide them into biotic and ecological, while not dependent on humans. Then the circumstances that limit the size of the population are not always regarded as indicators that can threaten the state of the species. Under normal life activity, including self-renewal, the biological resistance of plant

8 July 2022

Thirst-quenching yandak

«7/24. tm», № 27 (110), 04.07. 2022 Hot days have come, and each of us wants to quench his thirst. The hand stretches to the refrigerator for a soft drink.

4 July 2022

Thirst-quenching yandak

Hot days have come and each of us wants to quench our thirst. So the hand stretches to the refrigerator for a soft drink. And I remember the distant 1960s, when my grandfather gave me instructions on how to quench my thirst in the summer with health benefits, especially in case of indigestion after taking melons or other gifts of the Turkmen fields. He used to get his tin box of Indian tea with a tight-fitting lid from the shelf and, like a magician, take out a pinch of crushed and dried flowers of yandak – camel’s thorn. Having brewed and mixed it with honey, he gave us this wonderful, truly tonic drink. Our ancestors from time immemorial grasped the causal relationship of the effects of medicinal plants on human health. Knowledge was fixed and deposited in the collective memory of an endless succession of generations, in order to later find application in everyday life.

1 July 2022

Amazing Meetings in the Daray-Dere Gorge

This year’s expedition season presented new scientific finds and discoveries, which pleased the joint group of employees of the Kopetdag and Koytendag State Natural Reserves, who carried out research work in the picturesque watered gorge of the Koytendag Mountains – Daray-dere. This place can be called a paradise, although for scientists it is a Klondike for floristic research, a vast natural “botanic garden”, where viewing the rarities of the plant world is a real pleasure for the researcher, and every now and then on the path, one come across not only amazing representatives of flora, but also animals that inspectors do not often see in their natural habitat. The length of the branched gorge exceeds 18 kilometres, and all this linear space is accompanied by life-giving river water – clear and icy, “crunchy” from purity, tasty moisture goes around the high sides throughout the season and irrigates the deep canyon. Therefore, the entire gorge is a lush green oasis, which is filled with the sonorous voices of birds. Where there is water, life is in full swing, and, going there in anticipation of new impressions, we took with us cameras, all kinds of accessories for biotechnical work and sampling and the basis for collecting an herbarium.

24 June 2022

Dushak-Erekdag – one of the models of the Kopetdag Mountains

This is a remarkable place for botanists – a natural model of the Central Kopetdag Mountains, which is characterised by talus and stony-precipitous rocks, gentle grassy mountain slopes, narrow gorges with steep deep sides, plateau-like mountain peaks and intermountain dry steppe valleys. Its most familiar view is waterless, dry, as if breathing with heat in the summer sultry weather, high mountain ranges, which fascinate tourists with their inaccessibility and unique contrasts. For example, from the burning summer atmosphere of acclive slopes and lowlands with scorched vegetation and an abundance of thorns, you can move on to late spring on the intermountain plateau, where feather grass and fescue and couch grass vegetation blooms for a long time. The higher the mountains, the cooler the climate. Strong off-season winds sway these grasses, as if they passed in multidirectional frequent ridges along a rustling soft shiny base, abruptly breaking off from the edge of the sloping sides of the plateau down into echoing gorges, where insects buzz during the day, and cicadas monotonously “sing” at night. In the desert, summer quickly and imperceptibly absorbs all life and dissolves it in its boundless ocean of sands, where superheated air, dancing in the distance and creating a mirage over hot dunes, makes an indelible impression.

29 April 2022

Astragalus Blossoms in the Karakum Desert

In early spring, one can observe various astragalus species blossoming on the sand dunes, exhaling a subtle, exquisite delicate aroma. Less often, astragalus can be found at the foothills, where they do not “climb” high. The representatives of Astragalus alopecias that have fluffy spherical panicles-inflorescences are particularly beautiful; seven species are known, including Astragalus globiceps and Astragalus schahrudensis These large perennials up to 1 metre high with seven-centimetre inflorescences in diameter adorn flower beds. Astragalus macrobotrys with elongated inflorescences with pinkish-purple flowers that can be found in the sands has a peculiar form. The “inhabitant” of the Karakum Desert, Astragalus flexus blooms beautifully; its bright yellow large flowers form racemose inflorescences. The endemic gem of the nature of the Kopetdag Mountains is the cushion-shaped Astragalus podolobus. In the spring, during the blooming period, it resembles an impressive bunch of flowers – a fragrant pink-purple “ball” on the rocks, up to 80 centimetres in diameter. Some of astragalus species are attractive during the fruiting period. Astragalus chiwensis is quite extraordinary; it reaches 70 centimetres in height and diameter in wet years. Shaggy leaves and racemes of swollen beans give the shrub its originality. Astragalus sericopetalus is an endemic plant of the mo

22 April 2022

Spring tree planting campaign

«Türkmenistan Sport», № 1 (13), 2022 On March 20, 2022, the spring tree planting campaign was launched with the participation of President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov.

18 April 2022

Profession that Gives Joy

There is a profession – a florist, which gives a good mood for people. For as long as she can remember, Sapargul Mammetkuliyeva, an agronomist at the greenhouse complex of the Public Utilities Department of the Ashgabat Hyakimlik, has always been surrounded by flowers and plants. It was so in Magtymguly etrap, where she spent her childhood and in the settlement of Chandybil, where she later worked as a master gardener for several years and at the foothills of the Kopetdag Mountains, in a new greenhouse complex. Interestingly, the love of this wonderful profession and in fact, the way of life, was instilled in the craftswoman by her father, who for a long time, until retirement, worked as a foreman in the nursery of the Gök Guşak Joint Stock Company. Indeed, following the established rhythm, Sapargul begins her working day by discussing the tasks of the current day with her friendly team that consists of 15 people. And there are a lot of them: the checking of how seedlings grow in special cassettes for subsequent planting in open ground, the separation of flowers by variety and colour scheme, the preparation of potted flowers and much more.

15 April 2022

Blooming violets and winter-sweets

In the flowerbeds of city parks, lacy leaves of ornamental cabbage and bright fragrant calendula flowers are still blossoming in splendour. Soon, in early March, mass planting of annual and perennial flower crops is beginning in the capital city. From now on, every day in flowerbeds along the central avenues and streets, thousands of various species of ornamental flowering plants, cuttings of roses and wild roses will be planted daily, taking into account two months of bright but short Turkmen spring in order to create a continuous series of flowering, where the blossom fading of some flowers would be compensated by the bloom of others. To do this, planting patterns, combinations of plants and the quantities of seeds laid in autumn in containers with a nutrient mixture are calculated. And now, in the nurseries, greenhouses and conservatories of the capital city, countless Kalanchoe, geraniums, marigolds, petunias and decorative poppies have already been grown and are ready for transplantation. A few weeks before the planting season, landscaping work began: digging and preparing the soil, renovating tree plantations and clearing the holes from dead plants.

18 March 2022

‹
1
2
3
4
›