Pflanzengeographische Stellung und Gliederung Sloweniens

Abstract

This paper is the first attempt to divide Slovenia (NW Yugoslavia) phytogeographically. The pronounced transitional character of this country comprising the SE spurs of the East Alps and the NW foot-hills of the Dinaric Mountains on the one hand, the SW parts of the Pannonian Lowland and the NW tracts of the Adriatic Littoral on the other hand, entails an exceedingly rich variation of minor and major, biogeographically and ecologically different regional units. Let us add the conspicuous floral riches and the enormous variety of the plant units since this country is shared by three large floral or vegetational regions, viz. the Euro-Siberian, the Mediterranean and the Alpine-Arctic ones. In this transition area the migratory routes of the plants intersected and interconnected as early as the Glacial, and particularly the Post-Glacial Periods. During the changing Glacial Periods this country, mostly free from ice, was affording to the most varied flora elements shelter, habitats and spreading opportunities in all directions; it was in those periods the scene of very briskly changing floras and vegetations. According to palynological findings, today's Slovenia was — especially in the warmer Post-Glacial Periods — inundated with plants impetuously advancing from the Balkans, viz. chiefly by beech-trees. Slovenia's phytogeographical division is mainly based on the results of vegetational research from the last two or three decades, which (despite some imperfections) permit to divide our country into 6 phytogeographical regions. For the time being, they are phytogeographically not precisely classified; they rank below provinces, and approximately correspond to sectors and districts. The further partitioning of these regions and their systematization remain for further research work; area maps of the sociologically, ecologically and geographically major tribes of plants are going to be indispensable to this end. In this light, Slovenia's phytogeographical regions are: the Alpine, the Dinaric, the Sub-Mediterranean, the Sub-Pannonian, the Sub-Dinaric, and the Sub-Alpine regions. For each of them the climatic, orographic and geological features are described, and the properties of floras and vegetations are briefly discussed. The best explored and explained is the Sub-Mediterranean region; hence, its delimitation is the clearest.