The Klagenfurt botanist, F.X Wulfen, published a description of a
new sandwort (Arenaria villosa) in 1790. He had received the plant
from Karel Zois. He wrote in the description that it grows frequently
in the Alps in Carniola. The sandwort was later classified under the
Moehringia genus, but retained its species denomination of hairy or
short-haired (villosa). In 1838, the species was found on Porezen by
the custodian of the Provincial Museum in Ljubljana, Henrik Freyer,
and he rectified Wulfen's mistaken data that the plant is generally
widespread in the Alps. Freyer noted that it is one of the rarest
species (Planta rarissima!). The Natural History Museum in Ljubljana
preserves the herbarium of K. Zois and the Short-haired Sandwort is
preserved in it, but he did not describe where he found it. Karel Zois
did not publish anything, and among the few manuscripts preserved is
his botanical notebook from 1785- 1792, in which is recorded a list of
species which he had collected in the field himself or had been
brought to him by paid collectors. It is noted beside this species
that it was brought in 1787 by Koder from Znojilski vrh (Ushnelska
gora) which lies in Baška grapa. The text is written for the most part
in German Gothic, and there are also some Latin sentences, but the
names are in Slovene.
Short-haired Sandwort is one of the rarest of Slovene endemic
plants. It grows in cracks of dry, sunny rocks in Baška grapa, on
Porezen and Črni prst, and is one of the major plant specialities of
the southern part of the Julian Alps.