As a result of the variety in landscapes, soil properties and climatic conditions, Austria boasts a greater floral diversity than its neighboring countries: there are Baltic elements in the North, Atlantic influences in the lower mountains, and Pannonian and Mediterranean species in the east and south-east. The Alps are home to many endemic plants.
Nearly half of Austria is forested. At low altitudes oak and beech are common, at higher elevations conifers such as pine spruce and larch predominate. In the Central Alps, forests grow to an altitude of about 2000 m, in the northern and southern limestone Alps to 1,700 m. Waldviertel and Mühlviertel are dominated by spruce, beech and fir trees, the Pannonian regions by oak, European hornbeam and oak-beech forests.
Western Wienerwald, the Alpine foothills, the Lower Austrian limestone Alps, Salzkammergut and Bregenzer Wald are home to sub-Alpine oak and fir forests interspersed with Wych elm, yew, acorn and others.
Typical of higher altitudes and Austria´s West are larch trees; above 1,350 m altitude the Scotch pine predominates over the spruce. A great floral diversity can be found in the undergrowth.
The best-known representatives of the Austrian flora belong to high alpine regions. Hardly anywhere else in Europe there is a more colorful and varied Alpine flora than in Austria.
