Country

Bulgaria: 4 ecoregions. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

Four temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregions share Bulgaria. Balkan mixed forests cover most of the country's hills and lowlands, the Rodope montane mixed forests, a Half Protected unit, rise in the south, the East European forest steppe reaches the Danubian plain in the north, and the Euxine-Colchic broadleaf forests bring a wetter, milder character to the Black Sea coast. All of it is deciduous-forest country at heart: continental winters and warm summers inland, drier steppe-edge conditions along the Danube, and softer maritime moisture on the coast. Gardeners can rely on the classic temperate hardwood palette of oaks, beeches, and hornbeams, shading toward drought-tolerant choices on the northern plain. The forest steppe carries a Nature Imperiled rating, the most converted of the four.