Mid-Congress botanical excursion

Date: Friday, 23 June, 2006
Departure: from Vitosha Park Hotel – 9:00 to Aleko Tourist Centre
Return: from Vitosha Mountain to Vitosha Park Hotel at 5 p.m.
Participants: all participants in the Congress who are willing.
The price is included in the registration fee, but please, mark in the registration form that you will participate in the Mid-Congress Excursion.

Includes: transportation, boxed lunch and a botanist guide

Description and aims of the excursion:
Vitosha mountain is situated at approximately an hour’s driving from Sofia. The highest peak is Cherni Vruh at 2290 m a. s. l., together with nine more peaks above 2000 m. The mountain shelters century old broadleaved and spruce forests, specific subalpine communities, together with their quite diverse flora of over 1480 species of vascular plants. During the excursion, the group will visit the high-mountain belt between 2000 and 2290 m, where a significant amount of endemic species could be seen, such as the Balkan endemics Leontodon rilaensis, Hesperis dinarica, Lilium jankae, Aquilegia aurea, Angelica pancicii, Festuca valida, Dianthus microlepis, Senecio pancicii, Silene roemeri, Pinguicula balcanica, Sesleria comosa, Geum coccineum, Primula farinosa ssp. exigua; as well as rare plants, such as Lathyrus alpestris, Geranium coeruleatum, Gentiana punctata, Gentiana lutea, Anemone narcissiflora, Jovibarba heuffelii, Swertia perennis etc. Orchids are also expected to be seen: Traunsteinera globosa, Dactylorhiza cordigera, Pseudorchis albida, Nigritella nigra, etc.

The walking is light to medium difficult. The starting and the final point of the route are the same, and suitable rest-stops and view points are planned on the way.

Contacts:
Trip leader: Boris Assyov
Institute of Botany, BAS; Acad. Georgi Bonchev St., bl. 23;
phone: +359 2 979 3715; fax: +359 2 8719032;
e-mail: assyov@bio.bas.bg