Flora
Although the park occupies only a relatively small area, very diverse types of flora can be found. It marks the point where the coastal and continental vegetation zones meet, as well as combining the Dinaric and Alpine zones. This produces great floral variety across the multiple ecotones found in the park.
Most of the park is covered by a mixture of beech and fir trees growing on limestone and dolomite. Numerous variations characterised by local microclimates and types of soil can also be found. Here one can find single trees of sycamore maple, elm, ash, and sometimes some yew. The beech and fir forest gradually gives way to another large forest zone - the subalpine beech forest with lettuce grass, which grows in areas of the park at heights of between 1200 m and 1400 m above sea level.
The upper border of this ecotone is marked by impenetrable underbrush in form of shrubs creating a unique ecosystem, which has been termed the Fagelatum croaticum subalpinum fruticosu. Above the subalpine beech forest there grows the last, highest forest ecosystem - crooked shrubby pine.
The rocky peak of Risnjak is characterised by some especially interesting flora. The peak is home to a variety of rare and sometimes endangered species such as the edelweiss, black vanilla orchid, mountain milfoil, alpine yellow violet, livelong saxifrage, alpine snowbell, mountain avens and hairy alpine rose.
Read more about this topic: Risnjak National Park, Geography
Famous quotes containing the word flora:
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)