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Lokrum
has got the reservation status since 1976. Its total
area is only 0, 7 km² and most of it is closely
overgrown with natural vegetation. But there are also
gardens and walking paths. One of the most impressive
floral elements are the huge trees of Holm Oaks and
Manna Ashes. But a lot of them have been exploited in
the past, because their wood of is high quality. That’s
why on Lokrum there is a lot of coppice-wood. The next
stage of degradation is the “Garrigue“,
a low shrub land. There are also some biotopes, for
example the dry meadows and in the area of the rocks
the dry walls and in the area of the coast you can find
weeds. It’s amazing how many different plants
(about 400) can prosper on such a small area. Very remarkably
are the evergreen Holm Oaks witch can be 20 meters high
and 1000 years old. If you go for a walk through the
island you’ll notice the holy tree prospering
around the military hospital: a witness from antiquity,
the Laurel. In the botanical garden of Dubrovnik there
even grows the Eucalyptus. A plant very similar to the
Eucalyptus is the myrtle that you can find in the nature,
too. These plants have got very nice blue berries. There
are surely other plants like the Strawberry Tree (flowering
period is autumn and winter) and the Trebinth Pistachio
witch is very resistant against heat, dryness and salt.
That’s why you can notice this plant even at the
coast. In the coniferous forest there are two species
of pines: the Stone Pine (up to 20 meters high and with
characteristic umbelliform top) and the Aleppo Pine
witch was brought to Croatia by the Greek. Beside all
these trees there are climbers like Ivy and the wild
Madder on Lokrum, too. There are also a lot of rare
and protected plants witch you can admire in the botanical
garden. There in you’ll even see the Jupiter's
beard – a species of Fabaceae like clover –
that can reach a height of three meters. It has got
silvery silky leaves with pale yellow blooms. This plant
is protected since 1980 according to the Croatian Red
Book of endanger plants. Moreover you can see the wooden
Spurge growing at the coastal rocks. At Fort Royal you
can admire the lat. Putoria calabrica, that is extremely
rare. It has got rose blooms in the autumn. This diversity
of species is singular. At the beginning of the 20th
century people thought about acclimatization of exotic
plants. It was realized in 1959 and Lokrum got its botanical
garden this way. There are 800 species of plants from
Australia, South America, Africa and other parts of
the world and even some threatened plants from the Dubrovnik
area.
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