Škocjan Caves - Slovenia

The Škocjan Caves, a well-known and well-explored outstanding natural phenomenon, have long been recognized as exceptional due to their extremely varied terrain and exceptionally diverse flora and fauna. Collapse dolines and their surroundings offer shelter to rare and endangered bird species and several bat species, and an extraordinary ecosystem that has developed due to particular geomorphologic and microclimatic conditions has been preserved. The deep collapse dolines surprise phytogeographers with their numerous kinds of frigophilous species and a variety of thermophilic, sub-Mediterranean species co-existing nearby. In the area of the regional park, we find thermophilic species characteristic of sub-Mediterranean grassy areas and scrubs. The Park is the habitat of some endemic, rare or endangered species, which have also been entered in the red list of ferns and seed plants of Slovenia: Orobanche mutelii (the only habitat), Lamium wettsteinii (one of the two habitats), Campanula justiniana (´classical´ location or locus classicus), Aconitum anthora, Hyssopus officinalis, Juniperus oxycedrus, Ranunculus pospichalii and Salvia officinalis. The distinctiveness of the flora in Velika dolina is evidenced by species that grow here, relicts from the previous geological periods in the same sites. Glacial relics (relicts of the Ice Age flora), such as alpine auricula (Primula auricula), crusted saxifrage (Saxifraga crustata) and Kernera (Kernera saxatilis), are concentrated on the bottom of the collapse doline, just above the Reka River sinkhole. Some 40 metres higher, on the ceiling of the Schmidl Hall entrance, thermophilic relics (remnants from warmer periods) grow, i.e. maidenhair fern (Adianthum capillus-veneris), wild asparagus (Asparagus acutifolius), prickly juniper (Juniperus oxycedrus), and Tortella flavovirens moss. It is a unique natural phenomenon that such different relics thrive together.