The plants featured on these stamps are species that are characteristic of Slovenia’s Pohorje massif. All are rare in Slovenia, while one only grows in the Pohorje and is found nowhere else in the country. The adoption of a document that will define the summit areas of the Pohorje as a regional park by virtue of their conserved natural environment has been planned for some time. “Plants of the Pohorje” were chosen as the designs for these stamps in the hope that this will further raise the profile of the future Pohorje Regional Park, which is currently in the process of being established.
Bearded bellflower
Found in Scandinavia and in much of central Europe, the north-western Balkans and the Pyrenees. It is a characteristic species of the montane (mountainous) zone, where it grows in cultivated meadows and pastures, among mountain pines and on natural grasslands in thesubalpine zone. The bearded bellflower is a perennial flowering plant in the Campanulaceae (bellflower) family that – like most of our bellflowers – has pendulous bell-shaped flowers. It is a distinctly acidophilic species, meaning that it grows in acidic soils. Such soils are rare in largely limestone Slovenia. They are most frequently found in the Karavanke range, and of course in the Pohorje, where this perennial is a typical inhabitant of acidic grasslands – the Pohorje high meadows – along with mat-grass and arnica. It can be recognised by its intense blue flowers, the insides of which are covered by long hairs that give it its “bearded” name.
Rusty-leaved alpenrose
This plant is found throughout the wider Alpine area and its range also extends into the Pyrenees. In Slovenia it occurs from the Julian Alps, via the Karavanke and Kamnik-Savinja Alps, to the Pohorje. It grows on acidic soils and is therefore considerably rarer than its close cousin the hairy alpenrose (Rhododendron hirsutum), which grows on limestone. It is characteristic of a geological substrate that produces an acidic reaction or of soil with local acidification, such as peat bog, all the way from the montane zone to the subalpine zone. Very rare in the Pohorje, it grows among mountain pines on boggy soil – alongside high peat bogs and boggy spruce forest. It takes the second part of its name from the initially yellowish and then rust-brown spots on the underside of its leaves, which clearly distinguishes it from the hairy alpenrose, which has green leaves edged with long hairs.
Corrupt spleenwort
This spleenwort looks very similar to two widespread and common ferns of the Asplenium genus – the maidenhair spleenwort and the green spleenwort – and is in fact a tetraploid hybrid (with doubled chromosomes) of the two. It occurs in Europe and Canada but is very rare throughout its range, since it has specific habitat requirements. In Slovenia it only grows over serpentine rocks, which are found in a few places in the Pohorje. It requires a moist substrate, bare rock and plenty of shade. This habitat is offered by serpentine rocks in the abandoned quarry above Zgornja Bistrica and by Radkovski Potok, a stream near Tinjska Gora. Owing to its rarity and endangered status, this plant is among the species of Europe-wide importance that are qualifying species for Natura 2000 areas.
