Třeboňsko
Sand Drift near Vlkov NM
This national monument is an isolated sand drift, located 1 km north-west of Vlkov. The sand drift has a relatively well¬-preserved original shape which strikingly rises by 4 to 6 meters above the surrounding landscape and can be seen from a great distance. It is a refuge area of the psammophilous flora and fauna. The upper Cretaceous sediments are covered with the Pleistocene fluvial gravels and sands and their surface is formed by eolian sediments – wind-borne sands probably accummulated in the late glacial age. The sand drift was formed by the eastern wind. The shifting sand covers the community of psammophilous plants in the place of the original habitat of acid oakwoods. The Morison's spurry (Spergula morisonii) blooms here in the early spring. Also the fineleaf sheep fescue (Festuca filiformis) and hard fescue (Festuca brevipila) grow here. The grey-hair-grass (Corynephorus canescens) grows in the tufts in the clean sand. The peripheral parts of the sand drift are covered with the shepherd` cress (Teesdalia nudicaulis), cream-anther field pepperwort (Lepidium campestre), smooth finger-grass (Digitaria ischaemum), little cottonrose (Filago minima), field parsley piert (Aphanes arvensis), lamb succory (Arnoseris minima) and hogbite (Chondrilla juncea). The drift is stabilized towards the river with a group of oak-trees and the young pine wood with scattered birches and trembling poplars. The small thorny shrubs of gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa) which were once growing on the banks of the old, now already backfilled channel of the Lužnice River, appear now and then in the undergrowth. Despite the fact that the reserve is not opened to the public, a relatively high visit rate at the adjacent sand lakes is quite a problem. As a part of the controlled care, the undesirable voluntary trees and invasive plant species are removed from the reserve.
