The vegetation cover of the proposed reserve – „Skarbowa Góra” on the Gielniowski Hummock (Małopolska Upland)

 The vegetation cover of the proposed reserve – „Skarbowa Góra” on the Gielniowski Hummock (Małopolska Upland)

 Monika Podgórska

 

The Gielniowski Hummock mesoregion is situated in the northern part of the sub-province of the Małopolska Upland. The area is of upland-type comprising rhaetoliassic sandstones covered by post-glacial formations. The natural vegetation is formed chiefly by forests – primarily the coniferous forest communities, as well as acidophilous
oak forests and acidophilous beech forests – which cover over 70% of the surface area. The forest community, which is very rare in the study area and – because of this fact – worthy protection, is the fertile beech forest – it occurs only in one place in the Gielniowski Hummock – on the Skarbowa Góra hill.
Proposed reserve „Skarbowa Góra” is situated in the south-eastern part of the Gielniowski Hummock, between Łazy and Skarżysko Książęce town (Fig. 1) and it covers 120 ha area. To show characteristic features of the vegetation cover of proposed reserve „Skarbowa Góra” a full floristic list as well as phytosociological records (relevés) using Braun-Blanquet’s method have been made.
The most significant natural values of the vegetation cover of this site include:
– the fertile Carpathian beech forest (Table 1) – Skarbowa Góra hill is the sole station of this community in the whole mesoregion area;
–110 species of vascular plant flora with protected and mountainous species (Table 2),
– some of the mountainous species (e.g. Allium ursinum L. – Fig. 2) are very rare – because of its geographical range – elements of vascular flora in the Gielniowski Hummock and the Małopolska Upland (Fig. 3).
The presented values are the significant argument for placing the surroundings of Skarbowa Góra under protection as the reserve.