RakovacSilver linden
Tilia tomentosa
The tree that gives the forests of Fruška Gora their character: silvery-white undersides to the leaves and fragrant blossom in early summer.
Atlas · flora and fungi
Plants and mushrooms of Fruška Gora: edible and poisonous mushrooms, trees and flowers
About 1,500 plant species and more than 2,000 kinds of larger fungi grow on Fruška Gora. The trees and flowers around Rakovac, the mushrooms people pick here, and the deadly ones to know before you pick anything.
Forests cover about 90 per cent of the National Park: cool mixed woods of sessile oak and hornbeam, beech on the shaded slopes, warm forests of Turkey and Hungarian oak, and a large share of silver linden. On the sunny edges grow the remains of the old Pannonian steppe. The figure of more than 2,000 larger fungi comes from Eleonora Čapelja, president of the Novi Sad Mushroom Society (Telegraf).
Trees
Sessile oak
Quercus petraea
With hornbeam it forms the cooler mixed forests on the slopes.
Turkey oak
Quercus cerris
An oak of the warm, dry slopes; its acorn cups are covered in long, curly scales.
Hungarian oak
Quercus frainetto
An oak with large, deeply lobed leaves that grows with the Turkey oak in the warm forests.
European beech
Fagus sylvatica
Grows on the cooler, shaded slopes; smooth grey bark and a deep, dark shade in summer.
Hornbeam
Carpinus betulus
A smooth, fluted grey trunk, as if made of muscle; a common companion of the sessile oak.
Flowers of the steppe slopes
Burning bush
Dictamnus albus
caution
A tall, fragrant plant of the sunny steppe slopes with pink-veined flowers. Do not touch it on sunny days: its oils, together with sunlight, can cause burn-like blisters on the skin.
Spring pheasant's eye
Adonis vernalis
poisonous
Large yellow flowers on the steppe slopes in early spring, a relic of the ancient steppe. Poisonous to people and animals; leave it where it grows.
Dwarf iris
Iris pumila
A tiny iris of the dry grassland, flowering in spring in violet or yellow; part of the relict steppe vegetation.
Feather grass
Stipa pulcherrima
The silky, feather-like awns of this steppe grass wave in the wind on the sunny slopes in early summer.
Orchids
Orchidaceae
protected
Orchids are among the plant families with the most species in the National Park. Admire and photograph them, but never pick or dig them up.
Mushrooms: read this first
Never eat a mushroom you are not completely sure of
Edible and poisonous mushrooms can look alike, and there is no rule of thumb that tells them apart: no silver spoon, no peeling test, no “the snails ate it”. Have every mushroom checked by an experienced picker or by the Novi Sad Mushroom Society (Gljivarsko društvo Novi Sad). The drawings on this page are decorative and must not be used for identification.Mushrooms people pick (only after an expert’s check)
Morel
Morchella
One of the first mushrooms of the year, appearing soon after the snow melts. Lookalike: the poisonous false morel (Gyromitra), with a brain-like cap.
Chicken of the woods
Laetiporus sulphureus
Bright yellow-orange shelves on tree trunks, from May onwards.
Chanterelle
Cantharellus cibarius
Egg-yellow, with forked ridges instead of true gills, growing from the ground. Lookalike: the poisonous jack-o’-lantern (see below).
Beefsteak fungus
Fistulina hepatica
A liver-red bracket on old oaks that oozes red juice when cut.
Parasol mushroom
Macrolepiota procera
A tall mushroom with a snakeskin-patterned stem and a ring that slides up and down. Smaller, poisonous parasols look similar.
Porcini (cep)
Boletus edulis
Brown cap, pale pores instead of gills and a thick stem. It grows on Fruška Gora too, but in smaller numbers.
Poisonous and deadly
Death cap
Amanita phalloides
deadly poisonous
Responsible for most fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide. Greenish-olive cap, white gills, a ring on the stem and a sack-like volva at the base. A single cap can kill, and symptoms start only after about 12 hours.
Destroying angels
Amanita verna, A. virosa
deadly poisonous
All-white relatives of the death cap and just as deadly. Easily mistaken for young white field mushrooms: check for the volva at the base.
Jack-o'-lantern
Omphalotus olearius
poisonous
Orange like a chanterelle, but grows in clusters on wood and has true, crowded gills. Causes vomiting and diarrhoea.
Fly agaric
Amanita muscaria
poisonous
The fairy-tale red mushroom with white spots. Poisonous: never eat it.
If someone may be poisoned
- Go to hospital at once, or call 194. Do not wait for symptoms to pass and do not treat yourself.
- With the death cap, symptoms start only about 12 hours after the meal; treatment within the first 48 hours greatly improves the chances (Military Medical Academy, quoted by BBC News Serbian).
Sources
More in Nature
Old quarry · also called Rakovac Cave
Beli Majdan
A quarried hall in the hillside above the monastery, its roof held up by pillars of stone the quarrymen left standing. Ten minutes on foot from the monastery.
Isposnica · 18th-century rock hermitage
Hermitage of Isaija Parivodski
A tiny monk’s cell cut into a limestone cliff deep in the forest, named after Isaija Parivodić, a hieromonk of Rakovac who carved his name here in 1771. The only rock hermitage in Vojvodina.
Dumbovački vodopad
Dumbovac Waterfall
A five-metre waterfall hidden in dense forest on the Dumbovac stream. About an hour’s walk from the monastery.