Photo 1. During the dry summer months, the fronds of the rustyback fern
(Asplenium ceterach) growing on a drywall in Stribor’s Forest were curled
up in a state of suspended animation (anabiosis), but they have “come
back to life” after the first heavy rain. (Photo by M. Randić)

AWAKEN YOUR SENSES IN THE FAIRYLAND FOREST

After the rains have awoken the sleepy and dried up Fairyland
Forest, we can once again take pleasure in the colours, fragrances and
shapes of Stribor’s Forest. Walking through the mysterious wooded area
at the edge of town, using our awakened senses we shall experience and
learn about many types of trees, colourful flowers, and animals.

As the seasons change, so does this sub-Mediterranean
forest. After the rains, the heady scent of wet laurel copses will greet
us, or (in the early summer) the sweet fragrances of flowers among clusters
of lime trees. We will hear the rustling of dry oak leaves in the winter
and the songs of birds in the spring. We will be dazzled by the luminous
spots on the leather-like leaves of evergreen buckthorn or surprised by
the golden colours of the blossoms of evergreen shrubs and Cornelian cherry
or the yellow-green blossoms of Montpellier maple in the early spring.
These will be replaced by the fragrant blossoms of flowering ash, the
summer crimson colour of the Liburnian carnation and the reddish-purple
of sumac leaves in the autumn.

The more determined trackers will perhaps find and enjoy
a few juicy blackberries or the wild fruit of the Sorb tree. The texture
of the bark of different trees, the feel of the surfaces of the most diverse
types of leaves, even the sharp thorns on the twigs of endemic buckthorn,
brambles, rough bindweed, butcher’s boon and dog-rose will remind us that
in this forest we should not forget about our sense of touch.

With its many hidden corners, drystone mazes and other
artefacts that testify to the work put into this landscape, this forest
will occasionally cause us to imagine that in a strange gnarl on the truck
of a tree, or in an unusual mushroom or in an oddly shape moss-covered
rock we have caught sight of some fairy-tale being of the forest. That’s
why a walk through the Fairyland Forest will never be tedious; there will
always be something new and different to discover. (more at: www.pd-kamenjak.hr/staze.html
).

Engage all your senses when walking through mystical
Stribor’s Forest!

Marko Randić

Photo 2. During the spring, the flowers of Euphorbia fragifera exude a
strong and distinctive scent (Photo by M. Randić)