White Carpathians - Protected Areas
PORAZKY
This small-scale protected area was designated to protect species-rich meadows with one particular species of Lousewort, Pedicularis exaltata.
The robust Pedicularis exaltata is the most interesting plant of this site. Porazky is the only location in the Czech Republic where this species can be found. If you went looking for some other of these plants within Europe, you would have to head for the East Carpathians. The various species of the Pedicularis (Lousewort) genus are green root parasite plants.
Until now, botanists have not really found a sound explanation as to why several hundred of the plants grow so isolated and far away from the much richer Romanian population. Are they a remnant of one old, large, continuous population which once used to extend over a large area of the Carpathian Mountain Range? Did some seeds arrive here during the Wallachian colonization of the mountain tops or the raids of Turkish and Tatar troops from the East in the 16th and 17th centuries?
In 1978 the socialist cooperative farm removed all solitary trees from the site, causing an extensive landslip. As a result, some species almost disappeared, the Pedicularis exaltata among them – there were only 2 specimens of this rare plant left. The specimens fortunately rendered seed, from which botanists could grow young plants. These were later planted back on the site. Unlike the Groundsel (Tephroseris longifolia subsp. Moravica) in the north part of the White Carpathians (Hluboce), this species reintroduction has been a success story. The site has to be mown once a year to prevent the spreading of shrubs and seedling from the surrounding forest. The spot with Pedicularis exaltata needs to be mown by hand.
landslipe
Type of protected area under CZ national legislation: National Nature Reserve
Managed by: the state, through Bile Karpaty (White Carpathians) Protected Landscape Area Administration
Practical site management: state financed, conducted by local farmers (sub-contracted)
Contact
Vzdělávací a informační středisko Bílé Karpaty, o.p.s.
Marie Petrů
Bartolomějské náměstí 47, 698 01 Veselí nad Moravou
Tel.:518 322 545
e-mail:visbk@bilekarpaty.cz
http://bilekarpaty.cz/vis
