Visions of the past and dreams of the future in the Orient: the Irano‐Turanian region from classical botany to evolutionary studies

Ever since the 19th century, the immense arid lands of the O rient, now called the I rano‐ T uranian ( IT ) floristic region, attracted the interest of E uropean naturalists with their tremendous plant biodiversity. Covering approximately 30% of the surface of E urasia (16000000 km 2 ), the IT region is one of the largest floristic regions of the world. The IT region represents one of the hotspots of evolutionary and biological diversity in the...