COST Action E 52 - vTI - Bund.de

Fig. 1: Natural distribution of Fagus sylvatica in Bulgaria
oriental beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky)
The natural distribution of oriental beech is in the eastern part of Balkan peninsula, Asia Minor,
Crimea, the Caucasus and Iran, in Crimea being located from the sea level up to 2,300 m above
sea level (Delkov 1988). The taxonomic status of Fagus orientalis Lipsky is uncertain according to
Greuter et Burdet (1981), Tutin (1993), Denk et al. (2002) who tend to accept it as subspecies
of Fagus sylvatica L. The discrimination between both beeches by means of biochemical markers is
considered by Busov (1995), Gailing et von Wuehlisch (2004).
In Bulgaria oriental beech is distributed in the Strandzha Mt., in parts of Eastern Rhodopes and Eastern
Stara planina (Eastern Balkan range), where on west it reaches Vurbitsa pass and on east – to Obzor
and Dvoynitsa river (Fig. 2). At an altitude above 00 m it is substituted usually by European beech.
GeNeraL characTerIsTIcs
Beech forests occupy the second place – 18. % of the forest area in the country, after the oak ones
(36.1%). Totally the beech forests cover 685,150 ha, of which 416,5 0 ha are high-stem. The growing
stock is 189,26 ,500 m 3 or 30.1% of Bulgarian forests, while the high-stem beech forests comprise
114,535,110 m 3 with annual increment of 4.06 m 3 /ha (Kostov, Rafailova 2009).
The human activity during the last 30 – 40 years led to about 20% increasing of beech growing stock
as well as to increasing of the relative part of the coppice beech forests.
62