Flora - Rusty-leaved Alpenrose

Flora – Plants of the Pohorje

The plants featured on these stamps are species that are characteristic of Slovenia’s Pohorje massif. All are rare in Slovenia, while one only grows in the Pohorje and is found nowhere else in the country. The adoption of a document that will define the summit areas of the Pohorje as a regional park by virtue of their conserved natural environment has been planned for some time. “Plants of the Pohorje” were chosen as the designs for these stamps in the hope that this will further raise the profile of the future Pohorje Regional Park, which is currently in the process of being established.

Rusty-leaved alpenrose (Rhododendron ferrugineum)

This plant is found throughout the wider Alpine area and its range also extends into the Pyrenees. In Slovenia it occurs from the Julian Alps, via the Karavanke and Kamnik-Savinja Alps, to the Pohorje. It grows on acidic soils and is therefore considerably rarer than its close cousin the hairy alpenrose (Rhododendron hirsutum), which grows on limestone. It is characteristic of a geological substrate that produces an acidic reaction or of soil with local acidification, such as peat bog, all the way from the montane zone to the subalpine zone. Very rare in the Pohorje, it grows among mountain pines on boggy soil – alongside high peat bogs and boggy spruce forest. It takes the second part of its name from the initially yellowish and then rust-brown spots on the underside of its leaves, which clearly distinguishes it from the hairy alpenrose, which has green leaves edged with long hairs.

Mitja Kaligarič