Góry Stołowe - kraina zrodzona z morza
Plants and mushrooms - for everybody interested
Deciduous forests
The lower subalpine broad-leaved forests from natural restocking have only survived in small fragments in hardly accessible land. In rich habitats, these forests are represented by fertile beech woods. The undergrowth contains numerous species of geophytes (perennial plants that propagates from underground rhizomes, bulbs and tubers) profusely flowering in spring just before the development of beech leaves. They include: ten-leaf toothwort, which is very typical for this community, bulb toothwort, dog's mercury, bear's onion that sometimes covers the whole meadows of the brook valleys, spring snowflake often found in the Park's area, wood anemone and less often found yellow anemony, Gagea lutea, Solomon's seal with racemose inflorescence of drooping flowers, and one of the most beautiful plants of those protected 
in our country - Turk's cap lily. Sycamore woods still exist in the rich habitats of shady slopes of deep brook valleys with permanent inflow of rock debris. These are one of the most valuable plant communities in the Park. The predominantly old forest stands contain mostly sycamore maple, beech and mountain elm, and honesty (Lunaria rediviva) often occurred in the undergrowth. The purple flowers of this nearly one metre high perennial plant smell much like gilly-flowers, and after seeding late in summer, the silvery remnants in the form of elliptic seed pod partitions keep flickering in the wind for a long time. The honesty is accompanied by the plants typical for beech woods, and often by herbal species, such as white butterbur and chervil. Of less interest are the Park's beech forests which developed on poor soils. These are the so-called "acid" beech woods. There is very few plants of interest to be found in their undergrowth. Generally, a considerable part of the flora of Park's broad-leaved forests is made up of mountain species. Apart from the above-mentioned ten-leaf toothwort, spring snowflake or honesty, it includes such species as: purple prenanthes, Fuchs's ragwort, mountain twisted-stock, alpine speedwell, and Polystichum aculeatum. The specific microclimate of brook valleys and shady slopes also allows the growth of subalpine species, such as sycamore buttercup and Cicerbita alpina. Among the plants under full protection that can be found in the broad-leaved forests of the Park, there are, daphne mezereum, common ivy, goatsbeard, periwinkle, and orchids: broad-leaved helleborine and bird's-nest orchid, plus the above-mentioned spring snowflake and Turk's cap lily. The following are partly protected: water elder, wild ginger, adder's fern, sweet woodruff and lily of the valley, which is very rare in the Park. From the list of plants endangered of extinction in Poland, Fuchs's orchid occurs on the damp sideways of the Park, and in the brook valleys covered with the broad-leaved forests, one can rarely spot broad- leaved bellflower that has the largest flowers among all bellflowers growing in the wild.
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Park Narodowy Gór Stołowych
ul. Słoneczna 31
57-350 Kudowa Zdrój
tel. +48 74/ 8661-436, +48 74/ 8662-097
fax. +48 74/ 8654-918
pngs@pngs.com.pl
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