Botanical Summer in the Field – IB PAS team-building trip to the Miechów Upland

On 26 June, another team-building trip for the employees of our Institute took place. This time, we visited the Miechów Upland, near the village of Tunel. Upon arrival, we were "welcomed" by temperatures exceeding 30 °C. After a short walk through the forest, we reached the area just below the summit of Biała Góra, the highest elevation in the Miechów Upland (415 m a.s.l.). During a short stop there, Dr Sylwia Skoczylas-Śniaz told us about the geology of the area, while Dr Wacław Bartoszek introduced us to its flora and plant communities.

During the trip, we admired, among other things, the beautiful xerothermic grasslands of the Biała Góra Nature Reserve, developed on carbonate-rich substrate and represented by the Inuletum ensifoliae association, with the abundantly flowering Linum flavum at this time of year. The origin of these valuable plant communities in the Małopolska Upland and the challenges involved in their conservation sparked lively discussions. Our attention was also drawn to the cereal fields adjacent to the reserve. They supported interesting arable weeds, likewise associated with calcium carbonate-rich soils, such as Adonis aestivalis and Consolida regalis.

Some welcome relief from the heat came during our walk through the forested areas around the reserve – fertile and thermophilous oak-hornbeam forests with beech dominating the tree stand. These forests provide habitat for many rare species, including Aconitum moldavicum, representing a montane element in the local flora.

After returning to Kraków, we went for a meal together. Despite being tired from the heat, we kept our good spirits and enthusiasm for discovery until the very end, and we are already planning our next trip together.