Reisebericht: Mount Javornik

Reisebericht von Paul Veenvliet zum Naturformen-Eintrag S. tectorum from Mount Javornik

Years ago, we found a post on a Croatian forum in which someone claimed to have a Sempervivum marmoreum from the (Slovenian) mount Javornik. This message was rather intreguing, because S. marmoreum is not known from Slovenia. In stead, it's close relative S. tectorum is a native plant, but even this one wasn't known from Javornik. Also the habitat is unlikely, because houseleeks need sun and bare rocks and Javornik is almost entirely covered with dense -and beautiful- forest. My friend and Slovenian houseleek specialist Jure Slatner has been searching the area on several occasions and didn't find any houseleeks there. Neither did I ...

Until last year: I was there with a visiting British botanist. I told him the above story and he almost immediately pointed to the ground: there they are! And indeed, there were houseleeks. Sure, S. tectorum and not S. marmoreum. But not all S. tectorum in Slovenia are native plants: some are planted, which can be many decades ago. If the place is right, they can survive very long indeed. So were these native? My first thought was that they probably aren't, because we saw them on only a few square meter and not somewhat further in similar habitat. Today I changed my mind: I found several about 50 meter from the first ones!

Still, I have no way to tell how many there are. I have seen only few, but the rock is steep and to me largely inaccessible. But there it is: a hidden jewel of a plant, from a totally isolated rocky place in the middle of the deep dark forest of mount Javornik.

Some additional information:

Mount Javornik, or "Javorniki" in Slovenian is a mountain ridge of which the highest top reaches 1200 meter. The ridge is situated between the lowland of the intermittend Lake Cerknica in the North and the Pivka valley in the south. In the past, the densely forested mountain ridge was quite a formidable barrier and even nowadays local people speak different dialects on either side of it.

Much of the forest is dominated by beech (Fagus sylvatica), spruce (Picea abies) and fir (Abies alba), but on the southern slopes there are interesting stands of (native) lime (Tilia) and maple (Acer). the ridge is named fter these places because "javor" is Slovenian for maple. The forest is nowadays used for wood production but still in a good state with a rich undergrowth. Three years ago, many trees were damaged in an unprecedented ice-rain. Throughout the forest there are unpaved macadam roads, but there are signs at only some of the crossroads and navigation can be tricky (I sometimes end up somewhere else than where I intended to be :) ). Because the forest is quiet, there are still wolves, bears and lynx here.

Zum Naturformen-Eintrag

Zum Antworten auf den Reisebericht muss man sich hier auf  www.sempervivum-liste.de  einloggen.