Pomegranate Roads: A Soviet Botanist's Exile from Eden, Gregory Moiseyevich Levin, Translated by Margaret Hopstein, Pomegranate Roads, 2006, ISBN 978-0-9649497-6-8, ... Since the 1870s, when Russia colonized the Trans-Caspian Krai (present-day Turkmenistan), many researchers were attracted by the astonishing natural treasures of the southwestern Kopet Dag ... There are 42 varieties of fruiting plants in the gorges. Wild pomegranates, figs, grapes, cherry-plums, blackberries, hawthorns, apples, pears have their origin here. All in all there are 720 kinds of useful plants ...