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plants in various habitats, with particular attention to the rare and medicinal
plants as well.
This article is the first one of a series of publications aiming to present the
floristic composition of the vascular plants along selected itenararies.
THE STUDY AREA
In the Rila Mountains the largest Bulgarian National Park Rila is located
that occupies an area of 81 046 ha. A territory of 25 020 ha around the Rila
Monastery, in the catchment basins of the Iliina and Rilska Reka rivers, was
declared as the Rila Monastery Nature Park in 2000. In this park is located
the Rilomanastirska Gora Nature Reserve. Most of the floristic inventory was
carried out on the territory of the reserve.
The mountain is situated in the transitional zone between the moderate-
continental and continental-mediterranean climatic belt (Велев , 1997). Above
1000 m on northern slopes and 1500 m on southern slopes the climate is
typically montane. The average January tempearture is rather low (-10.9 °C,
station Musala), high average precipitation of 1200 mm is recorded and the
mean temperature decreases by 0.5 °C with each 100-m increase in altitude
(Г e о p ги e в, 1991)
Rhe Rila Mountains is the highest massif on the Balkan peninsula (2925
m) with a well developed system of six vegetation belts ( Ве лч е в , 2002). The
study part of the Central Rila Mountains falls within the beech forest belt, the
coniferous forest belt and the lower part of the subalpine belt.
The deciduous forests in the Central Rila Mountains are primarily found
along the valley of the Rilska Reka river up to 1400-1500 m. The plant
communities of
Quercus dalechampii
Ten. and
Carpinus betulus
L. are replaced
in the vicinity of the Rila Monastery by monodominant forests of
Fagus
sylvatica
L. and mixed forests of
F. sylvatica
with
Abies alba
Mi l l . In these
forests as an admixture are found
Acer campestre
L.,
A. pseudoplatanus
L.,
A.
heldreichii
О r p h. ex. В о i s s.,
Carpinus betulus
L.,
Fraxinus excelsior
L. The
coniferous belt above 1600 m is compact, well developed, composed by
communities of
Picea abies
(L.) Ka r s t . ,
Pinus sylvestris
L. and partly
Abies
alba.
In some places secondary communities of
Betula pendula
Roth, and
Populus tremula
L. are found. In the upper part of the coniferous belt above
the locality Hidrostroy - Tiha Rila, and in the vicinity of the Lake Suho Ezero
(1900 m), the participation of
Pinus рейсе
G r i e s e b . is considerable. This
species shapes the upper forest limit on many places (1950-2050 m) together
with
Picea abies.
The subalpine belt above 2000 m is dominated by communities
of
Pinus montana
Mill, together with
Vaccinium vitis-idaea
L.,
V. myrthillus
L.,
Juniperus sibirica
Bu r g ad.,
Geum montanum
L.,
Campanula alpina
J acq . ,
Dianthus microlepis
В о i s s. etc. On open terrains, near springs and hiking
paths, in the upper part of the coniferous and in the subalpine belts communities
of
Verbascum longifolium
Ten. and
Rumex alpinus
L. are found. On many
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