page_title: Kuban (river)
section_title: Flora
hierarchical_section_title: Kuban (river) / Flora
caption_attribution_description: English: Leaves of Sagittaria sagittifolia (Alismataceae). Deutsch: Luftblätter ("gemäßigte Form") des Pfeilkrautes (Sagittaria sagittifolia); hier bei Gegenlicht von unten.
context_page_description: The Kuban is a river in the Northwest Caucasus region of European Russia. It flows mostly through Krasnodar Krai for 660 kilometres but also in the Karachay–Cherkess Republic, Stavropol Krai and the Republic of Adygea.
  The Kuban flows 870 kilometres north and west from its source near Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus Mountains, eventually reaching Temryuk Bay in the Sea of Azov. It is navigable up to Krasnodar.
  Major cities along the Kuban are Karachayevsk, Cherkessk, Nevinnomyssk, Armavir, Ust-Labinsk, Krasnodar and Temryuk. Despite its name, Slavyansk-na-Kubani lies not on the Kuban River, but on its distributary the Protoka.
context_section_description: The river flows through three types of landscape: mixed forests of the Caucasus in the south, Crimean Submediterranean forests in the central part, and steppe in the north. The Caucasus mixed forests are rich in tree species; at mid-elevation, they are dominated by Georgian oak (Quercus iberica), hornbeam (Carpinus caucasica), sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) and Oriental beech (Fagus orientalis). Higher forests are coniferous and consist of fir (Abies nordmanniana) and spruce (Picea orientalis). The Crimean Submediterranean forests are also coniferous, dominated by fir and spruce.
  The vegetation of the delta mostly consists of thickets of reeds, grassweed, sedges, bur-reed and cattail. Less frequent are tape-grasses, grass rush, arrowhead and other water-hungry plants. The estuaries have rich underwater vegetation in the form of stoneworts algae, pondweed, hornworts, lilies and other species. The total area of such vegetation is 40,000 to 50,000 hectares (150 to 190 sq mi). Some estuaries contain thickets of lotus which was brought to the area from Africa.
caption: Arrowhead
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