NATURE
PLANT WORLD
- FLORA
ANIMAL WORLD - FAUNA
Kopaonik is situated at the border of two
significant Balkans provinces, Illyrian (western and more humid)
and Moesian (eastern and drier) with considerable influence
of southern, Mediterranean and sub-mediterranean regions and
northern Pannonian regions.
Favorable hill and mountain climate with considerable quantities
of the water sediment and snow cover guarantees a long period
of vegetation and a creation of a large volume of biomass.
Heterogeneous geological foundation (granite, metamorphic, limestone
and serpentinite) enables detainment of humidity and water reserves,
which are sufficient enough for life of plants and other organisms.
During severe winters, thick snow cover protects permanent and
delicate parts of plants, animals and other organisms from low
temperatures and frosts.
Geomorphologic and orographic characteristics enable formation
of the most various habitats of the plant and animal world in
proportion to the height above sea-level, exposure, ground slopes
and other.
PLANT
WORLD - FLORA
Favorable
natural conditions of this high mountain massif enable development
of almost all the forest mountainous belts with prime and
autochthonous forest vegetation, which used to spread to the
very mountain tops, where at those times had two smaller areas
covered with mountainous bushy and grassy vegetation of the
Alpine-Nordic character. That's why the plant world (flora)
of the Kopaonik massif is so rich and various.
Kopaonik contains numerous and various species of trees, bushes,
herbaceous plants, seed plants, fern, moss, lichen, mushrooms
etc. A lot of them have healing properties and they are known
as herb teas (Klamath weed, wild thyme, milfoil etc.).
Various types of vegetation appear from the foot of Kopaonik
to its top as a result of the varying altitude. Cerris and
oak forests are characteristic of the foothills. Nowadays
a large portion of them has been cleared. Almost all the arable
land at this altitude was once covered with forests.
Mainly in the Ibar valley, but also beyond, serpentine dominates
the geological composition of the terrain, giving rise to
the particular serpentine flora, which differs, considerably
from the flora of other Kopaonik areas. Pine forests are the
best known. A large portion of this territory has been bare,
but is being rapidly afforested.
Above the forests in the lower regions (Turkey oak, hornbeam,
oak-tree, common pear tree), there is a belt of beech tree
forest (Fogus moesiaca) in which there are maple (greater
maple) and sugar maple (Acer pseudoplatanus, Acer platanoides),
ash-tree (Fraxinus excelsior), common maple, lime-tree and
at the higher regions fir trees (Albies Alba).
Above the oak zone lies the beech forest, which stretches
all the way up to altitudes of about 1500m. Beech is master
of the forest here. Only plants like sweet woodruff and asarabacca,
which are adapted to life in the shade under its thick branches,
manage to grow in such conditions. Fir trees, one of the loveliest
evergreens in our forests, appear in the upper beech zone.
The highest forest belt on Kopaonik placed on the altitude
of 1500m is covered with thick spruce forests (Pieceetum excelsae).
The spruce belt begins above 1500m, while at 1600m spruce
becomes dominant. These parts are much more damp and cold
than the foothills. It is the taiga of the Kopaonik massifs.
It used to be a stretch of seemingly unending forest, which
were almost decimated by careless and irresponsible felling
up to the end of World War II. Hardly a single spruce on Kopaonik
is older than 150 years, yet as late as the time when Josif
Pancic stayed on Kopaonik the forests' condition was totally
different: "Sorrow overwhelms the expert, gazing upon
these vast forests uselessly growing and rotting, their trees
so intertwined that man cannot pass through them in broad
daylight…"
Times have changed since then. In many places pastures have
replaced the forest. The highest regions are covered with
grassy vegetation of pasture-grounds. For years they were
the basis for very intensive mountain cattle breeding, which
included bacije and summer months spent in the mountain. Today
this form of activity is dying out. There are a growing number
of cultivated meadows, sown with highly productive grass.
A belt of low shrubbery with a stunted spruce here and there
appears above the spruce forests, at altitudes over 1800m.
Mountain juniper (junipeus nana), which easily bears the harsh
winters, snow drifts and strong gusts of wind, is the most
common bush. The basic impression is that besides the juniper
very few other plants survive at these heights. However, it
is not so. Various plants grow under the protection of the
juniper (Gentiana Lutea, great mullein-Verbascum phlomoides,
edelweiss, Viskaria vulgaris, blackberries-Rubus caesinus,
sweet marjoram-Origanum vulgare, bugloss-Echium rubrum, burdock-Cirsium
sp.), especially the bilberry. If the year is good, more than
two hundred tons of this tasty and healthy fruit are picked.
Endemic species, like Leontopodium alpinum, ought to be particularly
pointed out.
The high-mountain edelweiss inhabits the almost inaccessible
rocks in the highest regions of Kopaonik. This species is
quite rare in Serbia, though widespread in the high Alps.
It reached Kopaonik a long time ago, when the climate was
colder and the edelweiss withdrew from the northern parts,
which were experiencing the last ice age on earth.
Peat moss is also a characteristic of the high zone of Kopaonik.
It appears in places where stagnant or slow-flowing spring
or stream water is collected. A plant world of its own exists
in the shallow water, forming peat at the bottom. Although
the layer of peat is relatively thin, these high-mountain
peat bogs are over a thousand years old. Here, they are called
Bare. The most famous ones are: Jankova bara, Crvene bare,
Barska reka.
ANIMAL
WORLD - FAUNA
The fauna of Kopaonik is an inseparable
part of the life of the mountain and its flora. Conditions
imposed by nature have much more of an effect on plants, directly
influencing the dispersion and formation of vertical vegetation
zones. In this respect the animal world is more difficult
to perceive, but it is also specific in many ways. We will
mention but a few animal species, which verify this claim.
The red crossbill lives exclusively in the evergreen zone.
It subsists on pine seeds. The bird does not wait for the
fir cones to open up themselves but rather pries them open
itself with its cross-shaped bill. This kind of a break is
the result of such eating habits. Or, for example, in the
highest region of Kopaonik, above the spruce zone, there lives
a species of grasshopper with nodules on its front legs resembling
boxing gloves. This is the Siberian grasshopper, which has
remained in this part of the mountain because of the similar
climate.
The animal world of the present Kopaonik is various despite
it being reduced in number, especially of the big game. Several
decades ago, bear, lynx, deer, wildcat, marten, otter and
falcon and horned owl used to live here.
Today, the only species left are wolf and other game such
as doe, fox, hare, and also different kinds of birds-small
number of horned owl, falcon, partridge, eagle, as well as
the bird red crossbill. The brown trout lives in the clear
waters and rapids of the Samokovska reka.
Dr Bratislav Atanackovic
"Nature's Riches"
Turistical Union of Serbia, 1982.
"Kopaonik" Mauntain climbing-turistal map
Geokarta-Beograd, 1992.
