Hladnikia (Hladnikia pastinacifolia)

Hladnikia appears unpretentious when first seen and if nothing is known about it. However, it is one of the most distinguished plants of the Slovene flora. It has tripartite, denticulate, shining green leaves. Its whitish flowers are in characteristic umbellate clusters. It is the representative of an independent genus, which has only one species. This in itself makes it a speciality, since the great majority of genera have a number of species. Hladnikia is also a geologically old species, being a relict preserved from the time before the ice ages.

It was found in the second decade of the nineteenth century, on Čaven, by the Slovene botanist, Franc Hladnik, a priest, teacher in Ljubljana and founder of the Ljubljana Botanical Garden (1810), the oldest natural history institution here. The new species was called after him, and thus a monument was erected to him that the teeth of time cannot destroy.

Hladnikia grows on rocky meadows and cliffs in Trnovo forest, on Čaven, Kuclje, Zeleni rob and Poldonovec. It has a very restricted range of distribution. It is classified on the Slovene Red List among rare plants, since it is one of the older endemics and has its classical locality - birthplace - here, where it was found and described.