The foothills of the Alatau are the historic homeland of apples and tulips. The Sievers Apple (Malus Sieversii) is native to Kazakhstan and is believed to be the progenitor of all of the apples on earth. The assumption that the Sievers Apple was the original ancestor of all apples has been made since its discovery, but modern genetic studies have confirmed the theory and proved that the apple comes from the Almaty region. There are currently more than 3,000 species of cultivated tulips in the world, most of which are descendants of ancient Kazakh local flowers.