Vol. 2 No. 2 (2023)

This issue of Plant Diversity of Central Asia (Vol. 2, No. 2, 2023) brings together pivotal contributions on the documentation, phylogenetic resolution, and multi-tiered conservation of Central Asia's unique and threatened flora, with a primary geographic focus on Uzbekistan. Integrating high-resolution molecular marker discovery, climate-informed species distribution modeling (SDM), and comprehensive threat assessments, the collected studies establish actionable paradigms for biodiversity management in a major global hotspot. Highlights include an interconnected regional conservation strategy linking in situ, ex situ, and quasi in situ approaches to recover severely threatened local endemics; an assessment of anthropogenic pressures on Uzbekistan’s Tulipa (Liliaceae) species along with new community-driven conservation models; predictive modeling of narrow endemics in the Nuratau Mountains detailing climate-driven habitat loss and the necessity of assisted migration; and complete plastid genome analyses of four Iris (subg. Scorpiris) species that pinpoint six high-divergence loci for resolving complex phylogenies. Together, these papers bridge molecular phylogenetics and spatial ecology to address the urgent conservation priorities of Central Asian botanical diversity.