Nature of Ergaki is splendid in its variety. There are cedar forests and upland tundra as well as alpine and sub-alpine meadows. In forest, one may cross a path of a bear, elk or red deer. Varicoloured flowers grow in meadows, and how beautiful are these alpine gardens! Big blue and sapphire columbines cover a glade; as if mountains were sprinkled with drops of sky. Between them, one sees sparkles of globe-flowers, light-yellow brollies of primroses, snowy macropods, white geraniums, pink pedicularis, Altai violets and a lot of other flowers.
Wild leeks grow in sub-alpine meadows; it’s a battle and vitaminic grass. In the same place, an excellent Sayan endemic is found: leuzea or “red dear” root, which acts as a good tonic. Along riverbanks, there occurs a rare in West Sayan plant: allseed or “gold root”. Its alterative properties are also used in medicine.
Vegetation of upland tundra is presented with dwarf birch and arctic willow. There are a great variety of mosses: sphagnum, haircap and reindeer moss. Repent junipers, Labrador tea, white gentian and saxifrage scramble legs of a passer-by. In some years, dwarf birch brushwood teems with mushrooms. Umber caps of boletuses rise above the birch woods.
Under cedars, there are thickets of rosebays and bergenias, where chipmunks (who are exponents of the region fauna) dwell in multitude. So if you leave a crust of bread somewhere under a tussock, in few minutes you see a nosey brown face with a tiny black blob in the centre near it.
Nature of Sayan is a matter of considerable interest not only for biologists and botanists but also for all who have an eye for beauty of Earth.