Góry Stołowe - kraina zrodzona z morza
Plants and mushrooms - for everybody interested
Coniferous trees
Spruce trees were artificially planted in the area and they were grown form the varieties which have difficulty in adapting to local conditions that is why they are in many cases susceptible to the natural factors. Spruce trees have a shallow and surface root system without a stake root. This factor together with the thin soil layer in the area of the Park and with strong winds, which especially in the early spring and late autumn when the ground is strongly saturated with water, bring great loss in the number of trees and there appear a lot of windfallen trees. Spruce trees get also damaged in winter by wet, heavy snow. In the post-war years condition of spruce trees was also influenced by the rising air pollution. In 1994 research measuring the damage of the spruce trees was conducted, in which the decrease of assimilating apparatus was measured, and it turned out that the Stolowe Mountains National Park came fourth in the list of Polish national parks. Weak spruce forests are threatened with the activity of bark beetles.
Already in the first years of the Park existence great number of spruce bark beetle could be observed. That is why in the whole area of the Park, with the exception of the areas of strict protection, spruce trees are monitored to limit the growth of its population. Trees infected by this insect are found, removed and peeled. At inaccessible areas, on steep slopes and between rocks, peeled trees are left for natural decomposition to limit the loss of biogenic elements from the ecosystem. Another way of decreasing the growth of spruce bark beetle population is placing pheromone traps luring the insects. This method, however, is not very effective. Areas deforested as the result of spruce bark beetle activity are replanted with the species compatible with and capable of adapting to the local habitat, e.g. beech, fir, sycamore maple and ash trees. Restoring the natural character of the forests in the Park belongs to its basic tasks. Vegetation of anthropogenic spruce forests is very poor. They are mostly one layer forests without proper undergrowth. In the undergrowth one can find bilberry, mountain cranberry and two species of grass: Deschampsia flexuosa, reed grass and also Oxalis acetosella which has white blossom in spring. In the passages exposed to sunshine one can very rarely meet Trientalis europaea and at the grassy, bright waysides and clearings foxglove This plant has in our country its north-east range. It grows in the Sudeten, the Silisian Beskids and the Zywiecki Beskids. Foxglove is an important medicinal plant but is very poisonous. Special attention should be paid to pine forest with mixture of spruce and birch trees. These forests grow in small fragments on the rocky ground and can be found in the top parts of Szczeliniec Wielki i Mały and at Bledne Skaly. Scots pines which can be spotted in these forests has characteristic, very often reminding bonsai, shape. Although they are small in height they very often are more than 200 years old. In the undergrowth of these forest blossoms and bears fruit rare Empetrum nigrum belonging to heather family can be found.
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Park Narodowy Gór Stołowych
ul. Słoneczna 31
57-350 Kudowa Zdrój
tel. +48 74/ 8661-436, +48 74/ 8662-097
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