Elcuki thrives botanically

Written by Administrator

Wednesday, 24 August 2011 20:33

Three years have passed since the first koniks were released on the estate Elcuki. The family Rubeni here have fenced out there pastoral lands approximately 50 ha. show that it can be grazed with koniks and cattle. Elcuki lies just above Grobina next to the Tasu Lake. It exists from sloping half open landscape with several ponds and marshes. Parts of the area (4ha.) exist from botanically riche wet meadows, which already before grazing was started had deserved a protected status. But also the remaining grass lands where old and relatively rich, but they were already more than ten years out of use. As a consequence large parts of the area where grown over with a thick layer of dead grass and they quickly where growing over with Salix bushes. Experience teaches us that meadows like this have high botanic potentials because as we have seen before, a couple remainders of botanically riche wet meadows can be a sign that still much of its richness lays hidden under the layer of dead grass.

. It is the middle of July; the meadows are blooming at their best now and therefore a good reason to visit the area again! With father Rubens and his two sons we explore the area. Whereas we hear corncrakes making there characteristic sound, one colourful palette of flowers after one other unfolded to us. Striking are the enormous fields of the yellow "Inula salicina" beautiful spoted with purple "Stachys officinalis" whereas the "Platanthera bifolia" and "Filipendula vulgaris" which are hidden in between have already finished flowering. The species have clearly spread widely over the grazing area says Edmunds Rubens, logically because as the grazers are doing their work well the thick layer of dead grass is disappearing slowly but certainly, species are combing back now and are flowering where earlier they where suppressed by overgrowing grass and no longer reached flowering. We still enjoy the "Galium verum" present everywhere around us and the richly represented "Serratula tinctoria" (in the Netherlands extremely rare).

These developments can be very interesting for the Rubeni because if a larger part of the grazing area is recognised as botanic valuable, they can also receive more subsidies for this. Thus we concluded after this visit that the time has come to invite an inspector again!

Last Updated on Wednesday, 24 August 2011 20:52