December 2014/ opatija – rijeka butcher's broom

Prospekt Flora, Flora, Interesting facts, Interesting facts

December
2014/ Opatija – Rijeka
BUTCHER’S BROOM
For several years now, P.I. “Priroda” has been cooperating
with the Town of Opatija is designing Christmas and New Year cards
that feature motifs of plants from the Liburnia region. This year
the butcher’s broom has been selected. Nikola Tojaga, our design associate,
made an illustration of the plant’s branches, while Jerko Gudac, our
photographer-associate from Opatija, captured a scene of the typical
use of the butcher’s broom in the streets of the Liburnia area … [more]
November
2014/Njivice – Rosulje
ROSULJE FOREST NEAR NJIVICE – DIFFERENT
TYPES OF OAK TREES AND DIVERSE OAK GALLS
Situated directly along the seashore, the lovely sub-Mediterranean
forest in the Rosulje area near Njivice almost became the victim of
a merciless fate. At the last moment (but only for the time being?),
the forest was spared from felling. On the oak trees (which are very
diverse) growing in the forest, we came across a multitude of oak
galls of different shapes, a special feature of the biological diversity
of the forest in the environs of Njivice … [more]
October
2014/Rijeka – the Kvarner marine area
MEDMPANET AND NEPTUNE GRASS
October 2014 marks the end of MedMPAnet (Project for the Development
of a Mediterranean Marine and Coastal Protected Areas (MPAs) Network
through the boosting of MPAs creation and management). Project results
will be posted on our Web pages. At this time, we would like briefly
to call attention to the importance of marine flowering plants and
the need for their protection, which was one of project’s aims … [more]
POMEGRANATES
FROM CRES ISLAND
While gathering data about indigenous varieties and breeds for the
2015 Novi List and INA calendar, we turned to Mrs Mira Radunić, Ph.D.,
of the Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst Reclamation in Split,
concerning pomegranates growing on Cres Island. Because little is
known of this variety of pomegranate, we sent her for analysis a sample
of the native pomegranate from Cres Island, which was collected by
Dino Fučić, our intern at P.I. “Priroda” … [more]
WAXCAPS
– rare and threatened fungi of grassy habitats
With their brightly coloured fruit bodies (red, orange, yellow, grey,
snow-white…) and specific habitats, fungi of the genus Hygrocybe are
the equivalent of the loveliest and rarest flowers on meadows and
pastures … [more]
17
June 2014 /The Kvarner Bay islands – Krk Island
ON WORLD DAY TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION
– CHRIST’S THORN
The Republic of Croatia is a party to the UN International Convention
to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) that focuses on countries affected
by strong droughts and/or desertification. As World Day to Combat
Desertification is observed worldwide on 17 June, we would like to
take this opportunity to talk about one of the typical shrubs of dry
regions … [more]
13
April 2014/ Trebišća above Mošćenička Draga
MICROBE DAY IN CPGK
Kombucha is a medicinal “tea fungus”, cultivated on sugared
black or green tea, that has been known for more than two thousand
years. It is made up of different types of bacteria and yeasts that
float on fermented tea and form an amorphous, brownish mass. On the
trunk of a toppled beech tree that had been sawn up and was oozing
sap, we came across something that seemingly resembled the kombucha
“fungus”… [more]
March
2014/ The source of Rječina River
RJEČINA DAY – WORLD WATER DAY – WORLD DAY
OF FORESTS
During a recent visit to the source of Rječina River, we came across
an interesting phenomenon. Namely, on the roots of alder trees in
the remnants of gallery forests we found lumps or nodules containing
actinomycetes, bacteria that tie up atmospheric nitrogen … [more]
NEGLECTED
LAND AND RARE MUSHROOMS
The purpose of this brief report about neglected land and rare mushrooms
in Primorsko-Goranska County (PGC) is to point out a small paradox:
despite being neglected and unwanted areas, the specific ecology of
certain types of “forgotten land” can provide a haven for
rare species … [more]
CORNELIAN
CHERRY, BEARS AND DROUGHT IN THE LITTORAL
The Cornelian cherry has yielded very little fruit in the Littoral
this year (2012). The yields of other fruits of the forest have also
fallen short. These fruits of the forest are an important of part
of the autumn diet of bears that ensures bears will gain the weight
they need to survive the winter. To learn how this shortage of forest
fruit will affect the wintering of bears, we will need to monitor
their tracks and try to “catch” them on automatic forest
cameras … [more]