The forest reserve „?winia Góra" exists since 1938; it is placed in the geobotanical territory of the Góry ?wi?tokrzyskie (Holy Cross Mts.), on the contact of two geobotanical districts, that of the ?ysogóry Mts. and that of Ko?skie, at a distance of about 7 kilometres south-west of the locality Bli?yn. The reserve covers about 50 hectares and occupies a part of the hill called ?winia Góra, sloping gently towards south-east and south-west. The difference between the highest and the lowest altitudes in the reserve — about 350 and 325 metres above sea-level — thus amounts to about 25 metres. The mean annual temperature is about +7°C, the precipitation is evaluated at about 700 millimetres yearly. The area of the reserve is more or less flat and the local surface inclination seldom exceeds 5°.
The north-eastern; part of the reserve is drained by two small streams running north and mouthing into river Kamienna. The remaining part of the reserve, excepting the areas placed highest, is usually swampy. This is the result of a small slope inclination impeding a quick run-off of rain-water, and also of the impermeability of the subsoil unfavorable to drainage.
On a large part of the reserve, especially in its western part, there are pits of various size, periodically or permanently filled with water. These are the traces of a previous lively exploitation of iron ore. The mining activities conducted here troubled or even permanently changed and disfigured some soils as well as plant communities. In spite of that the forests in the reserve belong to the most beautiful in Poland.
The forests of the reserve „?winia Góra" give a notion on the primeval forest which still in the XII-th century nearly completely covered the territories between the towns Ko?skie and W?chock. In the XlV-th century in the parish Odrow?? (then comprising nearly the whole area of the Bli?yn forests) there lived as little as 180 persons. A colonisation on a rather wide scale gave satisfactory results in the XlV-th and XV-th centuries.
In the territory of the Bli?yn forests — as well as in other parts of the ?wi?tokrzyskie Mts. — there are iron ores; they were first exploited from the surface layers, and when these came to be lacking, from greater depths by the use of mining pits. The beginning of mining in this region dates from prehistorical times. The first written documents originate from the XV-th and XVI-th centuries, i. e. from the period of the greatest increase in number of the smithies. The iron foundries used charcoal without which the metallurgy could not exist at the time. The burning of charcoal in the XV-th and XVI-th centuries" took a great extent and had its part in destroying the forests. In 1820 there were mines in the environs of ?winia Góra. The ore from the mine in the reserve of to-day was brought to Bli?yn and Rejów. In Bli?yn there was a blast-furnace and an open-hearth furnace.
In 1789 the Bli?yn forests were included into the so-called Government Mining Economy in Samsonów (forestry Samsonów) and supplied wood for the needs of metallurgy. An inspection in 1789 as well as the descriptions of the forests in 1830 speak of multispecific forests with an admixture of larch; the latter in some places even dominated.
The requirements of metallurgy were taken into considera¬tion in forest economy; the foundries wanted pine charcoal as the most adequate for iron smelting. These requirements caused the introduction of the pine (Pinus silvestris) in areas formerly occupied by the fir (Abies alba) and deciduous species. The domination of the pine was also promoted by a great fire in 1834; the latter destroyed more than 3200 hectares of forest, and also contributed to increase the areas of the larch (Larix sp.) forest-stands.
The conservation of some forest areas until to-day in a state only little damaged must be ascribed to a small utility of the soils for agriculture, to the lack of good roads in former times, as well as to a wet and inaccessible ground.
According to Krajewski, two series may be discerned among the beds of the middle Triassic (Rot) found in the environs of ?winia Góra: the Wo?owa series characterised by white sandstones with insertions of clays with Myophoria costata, and the ore series characterised by grey clays, limonites, marls, and insertions of sandstone.
The ore series appearing on the area of nearly the whole reserve is the oldest. From south to north we find in the reserve the following rocks belonging to this series.
The highest, southern part of the reserve is built of sandstones, the fragments of which appear numerously on the surface. These sandstones are white or light-creamy, fine-grained, often with ochreous smears on the surface. They form beds attaining several metres thickness. Towards the north the territory lowers, and marls are found on the waste heaps of mining pits; borings by hand ascertained gray-green clays as shallow as 2 metres. On the waste heaps these clays show a yellow colour thanks to weathering.
The marls are creamy-grey or yellow, sometimes brown. Brown-black manganese efflorescences may often be found. On the waste heaps there are also fragments of clay siderite, the object of former exploitation. This is a ferrous carbonate with a mechanical admixture of clay substance (in all containing up to 38% of iron). The ore is rust-coloured owing to oxidation of iron in the air; the unweathered ore is grey-creamy.
The siderite appears at the top of the ore series as a thin layer (up to 40 centimetres) between marls and clays dominating in the ore series. The two last rocks form the depressions in the surface morphology, and being impermeable they cause an accumulation of rain-water.
In the north-eastern part of the reserve there is the probable limit between the ore series and the (younger) Wo?owa series. The latter is composed of white sandstones, visibly stratificated, middle-grained, with insertions of grey or red clays. The fragments of these sandstones are found on the waste heaps of the mining pits which often perforated this series.
An examination of the rock material perforated by the pits or hand augers show that on the area of the reserve there is a very thin cover of quaternary rocks. Yellow-grey loams dominate here, they are formed as the weathering product of the ore series clays. The thickness of these loams amounts to 2 metres. The loams are often mixed with sand and contain feebly rounded fragments of local sandstones. Some of these fragments show traces on their surface characteristical for the mechanical action of wind. The loams are usually covered by a thin layer (up to 40 centimetres) of white sand, being the weathering product of the sandstone beds appearing in the ore series. Thicker layers of sand appear in the southern and north-eastern part of the reserve, where the substrate is formed of sandstones instead of clays. The sands are fine-grained or middle-grained; the quartz grains are rather well rounded as already the sandstones from which sand originates possessed rounded quartz grains. Northern erratic blocks or pebbles were ascertained nowhere in the reserve. Therefore the quaternary forms appearing here must be periglacial, connected with the Baltic glaciation.
The rocks building up Mt. ?winia Góra belong to the Triassic cover of the ?wi?tokrzyskie Mts. An interpretation of the geolo¬gical survey of the surface as well as borings outside the reserve allow to establish that the Rot rocks are gently inclined northwards at an angle of about 10°.
The soils of the forest reserve „?winia Góra" show an extremely varied pattern not often met with on so small a surface. The most important reason of this variability is seemingly given by the geology of this territory, or speaking more precisely, the petrographic-mineral character of the sediments and their arrangement in space.
In the ore series and the Wo?owa series found here (see the chapter on the geology) the following types of rocks are distinct: (a) the loams of the ore series well provided with plant nutrients, and (b) the sandstones of the Wo?owa series as well as the sandstones forming the rest of the ore series, all very poor in plant nutrients.
The second factor which substantially influences a specific combination of physico-chemical soil features, and especially the very variable water relations, is given by the mechanical composition and the arrangement of the rock forms. The soils appearing in the reserve show profiles typically non-uniform in a geological meaning, composed of two layers, (1) a more or less sandy upper layer of varying thickness, and (2) an impermeable loamy layer underneath. In general the latter slopes towards the north-east, but does by no means form a plane which lowers uniformly; it is covered by many outflowless depressions causing larger or smaller areas to fill with non-mobile ground-water. Such an arrangement of the subsoil layer causes the soil water relations to vary very much. Numerous secondary disturbances were caused by the exploitation of the ore series. The remaining pits and flat depressions are so numerous sometimes, that it would be adequate to use the name „ruined soils" for such areas. There are three chief groups of soils in the reserve, according to the dominating soil process: the podsolised, the brown, and the hydromorphic soils.
I. Podsolic soils. The podsolic soils appear chiefly in the southeastern part on sandy and stony-sandy sediments with deep ground-water. The parent rock is given by sandstones of the ore series. There are three sub-types in this soil type; they differ by the degree of podsolisation or the degree of wetness:
1. Podsolic soils with a distinctly visible eluvial horizon A2 and a strongly acid reaction throughout the profile,
2. A complex of crypto-podsolic soils and brown soils, without distinct marks of podsolisation, somewhat less acid than sub-type 1,
3. Peaty-podsolie soils, characterised by a greater humidity; the rather thick A1 horizon is made of decomposing peat. The underlying horizons (A2/G) show eluvial and gley phenomenons.
The first two soil sub-types are occupied by plant communities reckoned to the association Pineto-Quercetum; there is, in the second sub-type, sometimes Fagus silvatica among the younger generation. Again, in the third sub-type, in accord with the much greater soil moisture, we find the association Pineto-Vaccinietum myrtilli (the Molinia coerulea variant).
II. Brown soils. There are four sub-types of the brown soils, differing by the degree of degradation or by water relations.
4. Proper brown soils — they occupy the most fertile soil area, formed on the rich part of the series, even with an addition of marl. These soils possess good physico-chemical features (soil structure, reaction, humus variety, water relations); they support a species-rich association Fagetum carpaticum.
5. Brown leached soils — they appear with sub-type 4 and differ from it by a stronger acidity of the upper horizons (sometimes even of the lower ones). The same plant association Fagetum carpaticum appearing here is somewhat poorer in species (for instance there is no Allium ursinum or Dentaria enneaphyllos).
6. Brown acid soils from a lining along the areas of sub-types 4 and 5 from the south-east on the transition from the fertile ore series onto the poor sandstone subsoils. The soils of this sub-type are characterized by strong acidity throughout the whole soil profile but with a simultaneous brown colouring.
The poorer quality of this sub-type is also shown by the appearance of raw humus. Vegetation: poor fragments of the association Fagetum carpaticum and Pineto-Quercetum.
7. Brown soils with gley horizon — more or less acid swamped soils. The range of this sub-type comprises forest soils as well as meadow soils. Depending on the degree of wetness and acidity, the forest communities represent either Querceto-Carpinetum, or fragments of the associations Circaeo-Alnetum and a mossy fir forest. On the meadow soils the vegetation is a mosaic of communities belonging to orders Arrhenatheretalia and Molinietalia.
III. Hydromorphic soils. The hydromorphic soils comprise a complex of soils dominated by the swamp process. Their feature in common is an excessive wetness made visible by the process of gleying, and sometimes even peat formation. According to the intensity of the swamp process, the following division was made (after Musierowicz):
8. Mineral gley soils — they appear on the loams among the strongly disturbed soils (central part of the reserve). The gley horizon (G) usually begins directly under A1. The area of these soils on the map includes also the brown soils with gley horizon (as a complex impossible to differentiate in this scale). According to the degree of destruction of the primary soil cover and the degree of swamping, the vegetation in this habitat is represented by fragments of stands belonging to orders Fagetalia and Alnetalia glutinosae, and also alliance Pineto-Quercion. On the meadow soils we find communities belonging to order Molinietalia.
9. Peaty gley soils appear in a larger area in the north-eastern part of the reserve on wet sands (ground-water table about 20 to 60 centimetres deep). The swamp process is shown not only by gleying, but also by the beginnings of peat formation (the peat layer amounts to 20 centimetres). In the area of this sub-type there are also peaty brown soils with gley horizon (in a complex not differentiated on the map). Vegetation: fir (Abies) forest with mosses, numerous stands of Sphagnum, more rarely Polytrichum.
10. Peat gley soils — these are similar to soils of sub-type 9, but developed much stronger; their peat horizon attains 40 cen¬timetres. According to the existing swamp and peat-forming processes, the forest communities are represented by a transi¬tory forest peat-moor or by the association Pineto-Vaccinietum uliginosi.
11. Wet alluvial soils on peat, and alluvial humus-rich soils — they appear in the neighbourhood of a small forest stream. In the first case the peat layer attains about
3 centimetres in the lower layers of the alluvia. Vegetation: alder-wood.
12. Soils with decomposing peat — they approach sub-type 10, but show distinct traces of peat decomposition. Vegetation: association Pineto-Vaccinietum uliginosi.
a. The forest communities. According to the conditions of the climate, geology and soil, the soil surface morphology, as well as the changes made by mining activities, natural plant associations of forests and meadows were formed in the reserve. These plant associations show specific features: floristic composition, structure, and physiognomy. In the forest communities a large proportion of fir (Abies alba) becomes remarkable, this tree showing here a great dynamics of development and vitality. In some places the species forms closed, nearly monospecific stands. An interesting feature of the communities formed here is the frequently transitional character as well as a scanty appearance (or even the lack) of species characterising lower phytosociological units. The large number of tree species (eighteen!) is striking on the comparatively small area, as well as the presence of mountain plants (e. g. Streptopus amplexifolius and Calamagrostis villosa). It deserves to be stressed that a species of relic character appears in the reserve as well as in neighbouring forest-stands (Larix polonica).
Basing on introductory investigations which need completion as well as extension onto other forest-stands of the chief-forestry Bli?yn, 8 forest communities and 6 swamp and meadow communities were discerned and mapped in the reserve area.
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Winter in the reserve |
photographed by A. Sta?kowiak |
The forest communities are as follows:
1. The most beautiful parts of the forest with an exuberant under-growth and herb layer belong to association Fagetum carpaticum which appears in the most fertile habitats. To this association the author reckoned mixed forest-stands of a varied character (Abies alba, Fagus silvatica, Quercus sessilis, Q. robur, Acer pseudoplatanus, A. platanoides, Larix polonica, and other species) as well as nearly monospecific forest-stands, mostly fir (Abies), more rarely beech (Fagus), The following species characterising the association Fagetum and the alliance Fagion
should be named: Acer pseudoplatanus, Fagus silvatica, and Dentaria bulbifera, as well as Dentaria enneaphyllos (the latter growing only in one place). In the stands belonging to this association there also appear, in masses or very numerously: Asperula odorata, Hepatica triloba, Sanicula europaea, Galeobdolon luteum, and other species.
2. The second community belonging to order Fagetalia is formed by the poor variant of association Querceto-Carpinetum. The latter covers a small area in the reserve, growing on very slightly sloping ground (about 3°) and is characterised by a much poorer floristic composition than association Fagetum. Only Carpinus betulus appears rather numerously among the species characterising this association as well as alliance Carpinion. Species from order Fagetalia, as e. g. Galebdolon luteum, Sanicula europaea, Paris quadrifolia, Eurhynchium Zetterstedtii, are represented in a comparatively small quantity; again, Anemone nemorosa and Majanthemum bifolium appear very numerously.
3. Fertile and humid habitats, with frequent outflows of ground-water, are occupied by a riverside forest community, approaching association Circaeo-Alnetum by its composition; it develops in fragments on a small area. In the tree layer there are: Carpinus betulus, Abies alba, Alnus glutinosa, and other species. Following species deserve to be named in this association among those locally characteristic: Cardamine amara, Circaea alpina, Carex remota, Mnium undulatum. The differential species Athyrium filix femina also appears here in masses.
4. The black alder community. A community of this type occupies in the reserve some flat or slightly sloping belts along small water courses the water of which shows an acid reaction. In the tree layer Alnus glutinosa dominates nearly exclusively. Among the species characteristic for order Alnetalia glutinosae there are Sphagnum squarrosum (very numerously) and Frangula alnus (rather often). Moreover the following are rather numerous in this community: Rubus hirtus, Lysimachia vulgaris, and Athyrium filix femina; Viola palustris, Peucedanum palustre, Trientalis europaea, and other species appear sporadically.
5. A mossy fir forest of alliance Vaccinio-Piceion appears on flat or slightly sloping areas with a comparatively high groundwater table. This community shows a rather distinct similarity in floristic composition as well as in ecological conditions to the association Querceto-Piceetum (Querceto-Betuletum lycopodietosum) from the Bia?owie?a National Park. Abies alba dominates in the tree layer. It is supplemented by Betula pubescens, Picea excelsa, and locally by Carpinus betulus, Quercus sessilis, and Alnus glutinosa. In the herb layer a usually closed carpet of mosses dominates, composed chiefly of Sphag¬num Girgensohnii *,
Sph. palustre, Polytrichum commune, and the liverwort Plagiochila asplenioides *. Moreover Vaccinium myrtillus and Majanthemum bifolium grow numerously; Lycopodium annotinum * and other mostly acidophilus species are frequent. The species marked by an asterisk * are considered as characteristic for Querceto-Piceetum.
6. Association Pineto-Quercetum appears in the reserve usually in a poorer form. It occupies the largest area among the forest communities found here. The tree layer chiefly contains: Abies alba, Quercus sessilis, Pinus silvestris, and Fagus silvatica in various proportions. Among the species characte ristic for alliance Pineto-Quercion there are: Polytrichum attenuation (very numerous), sporadically Populus tremula and Hieracium umbellatum. Vaccinium myrtillus grows in masses or very numerously in all stands of this community.
7. Pineto-Vaccinietum myrtilli appears on the border of the depressed part of the reserve in the form of a floristically poor, humid variant with Molinia coefulea. In the tree layer Pinus silvestris dominates, accompanied by Betula pubescens. In the herb layer there appear in masses: Pteridium aquilinum, Vaccinium myrtillus, also Calamagrostis villosa, and the mosses Entodon Schreberi and Hylocomium splendens. Also Polytrichum commune and Sphagnum Girgensohnii grow numerously here.
8. Pineto-Vaccinietum uliginosi occupies in the reserve the central part of the depression named above. The tree layer, not quite closed, is composed of Pinus silvestris and Betula pubescens. The species characterising the association are represented by Vaccinium uliginosum and Ledum palustre. The following species also appear in masses in this community: Vaccinium myrtillus and the mosses Sphagnum recurvum, Entodon Schreberi, and others covering about 90% of the surface.
9. Transitory forest-peat-moor. This community is characterised before all by a very small density degree of the tree layer (dominated by Betula pubescens) and by a closed carpet of mosses composed nearly exclusively of Sphagnum Girgensohnii.
10. Areas with fragments of communities chiefly belonging to order Fagetalia and alliances Alnion glutinosae and Pineto-Quercion; these are nearly exclusively the old mining areas with a usually high watertable. The mining activities formed artificial depressions and hummocks; fragments of the ancient vegetation are still conserved. Nearly all species of trees appearing in the reserve may be found here, and the character of the herbaceous layer changes abruptly every ten or twenty metres according to the local environment conditions.
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The forest belonging to order Fagetalia in ?winia Góra reserve |
photographed by A. Sta?kowiak |
b. The swamp and meadow communities. The area of meadows and reed-swamps in the reserve ?winia Góra does not exceed 3 hectares; in spite of this as much as six plant communities appear there (some of them, however, very feebly developed). All of them without exception developed on the place of the forest as a result of the economical activity of man. The most important environment factor deciding on the formation of a definite meadow or swamp association is the level of ground-water. The fertility and mechanical composition of the soil also have a considerable effect.
The meadows in the reserve are mown no more since 1956; this short period has sufficed for a full stressing of the development tendencies of these communities. The depressions with fragments of swamp vegetation are quickly dominated by Salix cinerea and Alnus glutinosa, and thus transformed into an osiery. The trees and shrubs going into the meadows more and more numerously (Salix cinerea, Frangula alnus, Populus tremula, Betula verrucosa, Sorbus aucuparia, and others) form a convincing argument for the assertion that the meadows left alone would soon grow over with forest vegetation.
A short characteristic of the swamp and meadow communities in the reserve is given below; the most humid habitats are described first.
Swamp association — order Phragmitetalia. The swamp vegetation develops in the reserve only on a small scale, most often in old mining pits inundated by water, in the form of poor stands of reed-swamp association (Scirpeto-Phragmitetum). In a drought period the water disappears nearly completely; only Phragmites communis grows numerously here, moreover there are in small numbers: Rumex hydrolapathum, Equisetum limosum, Iris pseudoacorus, Alisma plantago.
In one of the depressions, on a small area more shallowly inundated by water than in the cases described above, there develops a stand of Caricetum rostratae-vesicariae (alliance Magnocaricion elatae) with the characteristical and at the same time dominating species — Carex vesicaria.
The associations of order Caficetalia fuscae are represented by small stands of Carici-(canescentis)-Agrostidetum caninae, occupying small depressions inundated periodically and shallowly. Carex fusca and Agrostis canina are abundant there; among the species characterising the order there are: Epilobium palustre, Carex canescens, C. stellulata, Ranunculus flammula, Veronica scutellata, and Viola palustris.
Associations of periodically humid meadows — order Molinietalia. Molinietum coeruleae is the best developed and the most interesting meadow association in the reserve (owing to rare and protected plant species). Among the characteristic species (besides the not numerous Molinia) we find: Gentiana pneumonanthe, Iris sibirica, Gladiolus imbricatus, Galium boreale, Selinum carvifolia, Thalictrum flavum, Succisa pratensis, Betonica officinalis, Ophioglossum vulgatum, Trollius europaeus. The association Molinietum of ?winia Góra is distincly different from the Molinia meadows of the Vistula river valley thanks to the abundance of Nardus stricta; it shows connections with the infertile meadows of order Nardetalia. Also the abundance of the species of genus Alchemilla is characteristical, chiefly A. acutiloba and A. glabra. This is undoubtedly a mountain feature; it also shows a greater humidity of this area in comparison with the adjacent lowland.
There is still another association belonging to order Molinietalia; Filipendula ulmaria, Cirsium oleraceum, and Geranium palustre appear abundantly in this community. It is probably a fragment of association Filipendulo-Geranietum.
Associations of infertile meadows — order Nardetalia. More sandy and poorer habitats than those of the Molinietalia, are occupied by association Nardo-Juncetum squarrosi of the sub-Atlantic alliance Nardo-Galion saxatilis.
Nardus stricta dominates here; Juncus squarrosus, Pedicularis silvatica, Sieglingia decumbens, grow among the characteristical species.
c. Bryophytes. Until now 103 species of mosses were found in the reserve; in comparison with the size of the inves¬tigated area this is a very large number.
It must be stressed that besides common species there also appear mosses either rare or very rare in Poland, as: Brachythecium reflexum, Dicranum spurium, Drepanocladus lycopodioides, Heterophyllum Haldanianum, Meesea triquetra, Mnium cinclidioides, Scorpidium scorpioides, Sphagnum Girgensohnii, Ulota Bruchi.
There are montane species: Brachythecium reflexum, Fissidens pusillus, Mnium spinosum, Sphagnum Girgensohnii, and boreal species: Camptothecium nitens, Hypnum pratense, Meesea triquetra, Mnium cinclidioides, Scorpidium scorpioides.
In general, the whole of the flora of mosses in the reserve shows
a forest flora character. On a small area there are wet meadows, going over into low-moor (fen), and also into grasslands on drier hummocks, with a peculiar flora of mosses.
In a dry pine forest with accompanying oak there are not many species, but they appear in large numbers, forming the lowest vegetation layer: Brachythecium velutinum, B. Starkei, Bryum capillare, Cirriphyllum piliferum, Dicranum scoparium,
D. spurium, Endoton Schreberi, Hylocomium splendens, Plagiothecium laetum, Ptilium crista castrensis, Webera nutans, and some others. In a swamp pine-spruce forest there appear besides: Aulacomnium palustre, Dicranella cerviculata, Polytrichum strictum, Sphagnum acutifolium, Sph. fimbriatum, Sph. recurvum, and others. In beech forests and related communities the mosses grow on places not covered by humus, as e. g. on decaying tree trunks, on paths, on trunks of living trees, between roots coming out on the surface, and so on. We find there among others: Amblystegium serpens, A. subtile, Brachythecium reflexum, Catharinea undulata, Drepanocladus uncinatus, Eurhynchium Zetterstedtii, Homalia trichomanoides, and many others. In the wet alder woods there appear: Brachythecium rivulare, Calliergon cordifolium, Mnium hofnum, M. medium, M. undulatum, Plagiothecium denticulatum for., Polytrichum gracile, Sphagnum squarrosum, Thuidium tamariscifolium, Webera cruda, and others; in this habitat epiphyte of the genera Orthotrichum and Ulota are also found comparatively often.
On the wet meadows going over into low-moor (fen) there are mosses characteristical for this community, as Bryum bimum, B. ventricosum, Calliergon cuspidatum, C. giganteum, Camptothecium nitens, Dicranum Bonjeani, Drepanocladus aduncus, D. lycopodioides, D. Sendtneri, Fissidens adiantoides, Hypnum pratense, Meesea triquetra, Philonotis fontana, Scorpidium scorpioides, Sphagnum compactum, and many others. On the extremally dry habitats occupied by grassland there appear: Camptothecium lutescens, Campylium chrysophyllum, Pottia lanceolata, Rhacomitrium canescens, Syntrichia ruralis, Thuidium abietinum, and others.
d. The lichens. In the reserve 69 species of lichens have been observed till now. This comparatively modest number of species results from the density and shadowiness of the forests covering the greater part of the reserve, this being not very favourable for a better growth of lichens. Most of their species grow in the south-western part in association Pineto-Quercetum and on two glades in the forests. Again, in the beech-wood or in the mossy fir forests the lichens are rather sporadical.
The largest part of the lichens growing in the reserve repre¬sents common or rather common species found everywhere in Poland. The following should be named among the more interesting or more rare species: Alectoria nidulifera, Lecanora pallida, Parmelia pertusa, Usnea ceratina.
The sandstone blocks found in considerable numbers on both forest glades form a habitat for several epilithic species of lichens. Here we find among others: Acarospora fuscata, Candelariella vitellina, Lecanora (Aspicilia) cinerea, Lecidea crustulata, Parmelia conspersa, Rhizocarpon ambiguum.
On bare ground or among grassland on the same glades there are large amounts of „shrubby" lichens, for instance: Cladonia bacillaris, CI. deformis, CI. furcata, CI. gracilis, CI. degenerans, CI. pyxidata, CI. squamosa, CI. sylvatica, Lecidea uliginosa, Peltigera praetextata.
On the bark of trunks and branches of young oaks, alders, and aspens growing on the glades there are „crust-like" species as: Bacidia chlorococca, Lecanora carpinea, L. chlarotera, Lecidea olivacea; and the „patch-like" species: Alectoria nidulifera, Evernia prunastri, Parmelia fuliginosa, and others.
On the bark of old oaks in the south-western part of the reserve the number of growing species becomes comparatively the largest. There are: Bacidia rubella, Calicium sphaerocephalum, Evernia prunastri, Lecanora chlarona, L. pallida, Lecidea scalaris, Parmelia caperata, Pertusaria discoidea, Phlyctis argena, Ramalina farinacea, Usnea ceratina. On the bark or branches of the coniferous trees there are: Alectoria positiva, Bacidia chlorococca, Cetraria chlorophylla, C. glauca, C. pinastri, Lecidea scalaris, Parmelia furfuracea, P. physodes, P. tubulosa, Parmeliopsis ambigua, Usnea comosa, U. dasypoga, and U. hirtella.
The fauna of mammals living or periodically appearing in the reserve is rather rich. The most imposing representant of the Polish fauna, sporadically found in the reserve, is the red deer (Cervus elaphus); the roe (Capreolus capreolus), the wild boar (Sus scrofa), and the fox (Vulpes vulpes) are more numerous. The bagder (Meles meles), the marten (Mattes martes), and the weasel (Mustela nivalis) are much more rare. The grey hare (Lepus europaeus) is not numerous either, owing to a large distance of the reserve from arable fields.
There are also rodents; among the rare ones appearing in the reserve there are Glis glis and its near relation Muscardinus avellanarius. Both these animals belong to the species protected by the law. The yellow-necked field mouse (Apodemus flavicollis) and the more rare Micromys minutus should also be mentioned.
Among the insectivorous animals Sorex araneus is common in the reserve. In the order of bats, most often representants of genus Myotis are seen.
The avifauna of the reserve is not rich; till to-day only 56 species of birds have been found. This is caused by the shadowiness, wetness, and lack of undergrowth in the territory. The ornithological peculiarities here are the following: the hazel-grouse Tetrastes bonasia, the black grouse Lyrurus tetrix, the black storit Ciconia nigra nesting here, the woodcock Scolopax rusticola, and the very rare green sandpiper Tringa ochropus.
The order Passeriformes is represented most numerously; its more rare species deserve attention, as Corvus corax, Coccothraustes coccothraustes, Pyrrhula pyrrhula, and Carduelis spinus, as well as Emberiza hortulana on the borders of larger glades. Among the insectivorous birds the Paridae are the most numerous, and among these Aegithalos caudatus nesting in the eastern part of the reserve, Sitta europaea, and Certhia jamiliaris. Among the thrushes we find Turdus ericetorum and Turdus merula.
The Sylviae and Troglodytes troglodytes are represented rather numerously. There are interesting species: Prunella modularis, Caprimulgus europaeus, lynx torquilla, and among the wood-peckers Dryocopus martius and Picus viridis.
The birds of prey are not numerous here. There is only Buteo buteo, Accipiter gentilis, and Pernis apivorusf among the owls Strix aluco and Asio otus.
Columba oenas nests rather numerously, and Streptopelia turtur is found less often.