Rila Monastery Nature Park Management Plan - part - usaid

February 2004
The largest quantities of mosses have been discovered along and inside the beds of
the Rilska and Iliyna Rivers and their numerous tributaries, which at places flood the
adjoining areas, feeding moisture into marshes and peat bogs. These are appropriate
habitats for hygro- and hydrophilic mosses; representative geni are Drepanocladus,
Calliergon, Calliergonella, Philonotis, Hygrohypnum, Rhynchostegium, and
Scapania. Species of genus Sphagnum usually dominate the forest floor, covering
some 70 to 100 percent of the ground.
Conservation significance of moss species
Four species of moss of high conservation significance have been identified in the
territory of Rila Monastery Nature Park:
1. Lophozia ascendens (class Marchantiopsida). A species quite rare for Bulgaria,
listed in the Red Book of European Mosses and the ECCB ’95 List of rare
Species;
2. Schistidium agassizii (class Bryopsida). A rare species for Bulgaria.
3. Grimmia unicolor (class Bryopsida). A rare species for Bulgaria.
4. Anthelia juratzkana (class Marchantiopsida). A rare species whose range
throughout Bulgaria is insufficiently studied.
Literary sources identify around Rila Monastery the locations of two more rare,
endangered and insufficiently studies mosses in Bulgaria: Porella baueri and
Taxiphyllum wissgrillii. Their exact range is hard to confirm, for lack of accurate and
exhaustive records of the locations where they have been thus far found.
3.3.3 Medicinal plants (medicinal herbs)
The range and diversity of medicinal plant taxa
A total of 203 species of medicinal plants, whether of commercial significance or for
personal use (Fig. 12), have been identified in the territory of Rila Monastery NP.
Their number accounts for 28 percent of all medicinal plant species known in
Bulgaria and used in both official and traditional (homeopathic) medicine. Of these,
one species is lichen, and the remaining 202 species are higher plants. Best
represented in the Park’s territory are the families Asteraceae (by 16 species),
Rosaceae (15 species), Lamiaceae (11 species) and Scrophulariaceae (6 species).
Rila Monastery Nature Park
Management Plan -Draft
2004 - 2013
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