"Wow, I've never seen so many in such a small area," said Filip Lysák, our veteran ecologist and botanist, who's rarely surprised by anything he comes across in the field anymore.
His exclamation came after he saw the population of Turkish marsh gladioli that we discovered in one of our sites in the White Carpathians this summer.
At first sight, the Turkish marsh gladiolus (Gladiolus imbricatus) is a charming perennial with colorful flowers. It previously occupied a wide range of nutrient-poor, variably moist terrains in Moravia, Silesia, and Central and Eastern Bohemia. However, due to (primarily) the extensive drainage of the land, gladioli populations have declined dramatically. Today, they are highly endangered, legally protected plants.
The ever present pink color of the site that lies within the protected zone of the Porážky National Nature Preserve has made us very happy. We estimate that there are thousands of these flowers growing in an area of around 0.5 hectare. Besides the typical pink-purple flowers, we also found several of the rarer white ones here.
His exclamation came after he saw the population of Turkish marsh gladioli that we discovered in one of our sites in the White Carpathians this summer.
At first sight, the Turkish marsh gladiolus (Gladiolus imbricatus) is a charming perennial with colorful flowers. It previously occupied a wide range of nutrient-poor, variably moist terrains in Moravia, Silesia, and Central and Eastern Bohemia. However, due to (primarily) the extensive drainage of the land, gladioli populations have declined dramatically. Today, they are highly endangered, legally protected plants.
The ever present pink color of the site that lies within the protected zone of the Porážky National Nature Preserve has made us very happy. We estimate that there are thousands of these flowers growing in an area of around 0.5 hectare. Besides the typical pink-purple flowers, we also found several of the rarer white ones here.