|
| |
|
Conservation areas
Przeciszów
A forest reserve with a surface area of 85.13 ha; it was set up in 1996. Like the nearby Żaki reserve, it covers a part of the right-bank Vistula valley. The reserve protects a stretch of forest that has retained its natural character, with a predominance of sub-continental oak-hornbeam forest including an over 100-year-old oak stand. Local hollows of the terrain are covered with ash tree and alder riparian forest. Among the rare and protected species there is one whose occurrence should be emphasized: Daphne mezereum the mezereon, a highly poisonous bush which blooms before its leaves appear, often already at the end of February. Other floristic curiosities of the reserve include Epipactis helleborine the broad-leaved helleborine (an orchid species that has a drug-like effect on insects which pollinate it) and Vinca minor the dwarf periwinkle (a plant with purple and light blue flowers, whose extract was used to obtain dye). The old growth stand in the reserve favours occurrence of cavity dwellers. Woodpeckers - the Middle, the Great and the Lesser Spotted ones - chisel out holes in old, often dead trees. The Middle Spotted Woodpecker is one of the rarest woodpeckers in the O¶więcim Basin. Other species, like Sitta europaea the Eurasian Nuthatch, a few species of Tits and Flycatchers: the Spotted, the Pied and the Collared ones, nest in deserted tree holes or hollows which were created in a natural decay process.
|
| |
|
|
