European False Stitchwort (Pseudostellaria europaea)
When the Carinthian botanist, the Jesuit Franc Ksaver Wulfen came
to Ljubljana in 1762, he often walked to Tivoli castle, which then
belonged to the Jesuit order. On one of his walks at the end of April
or beginning of May, in a damp ditch below Šišek hill close to the
castle, he found an unknown plant, picked it for his herbarium and
later described it as Bulbous Stitchwort (Stellaria bulbosa), since it
had a tuber-like root. Later, botanists established that it the new
stitchwort belonged to the genera of "false" stitchworts,
which are widespread in Asia, but in Europe have only one genus, which
is called after the old continent. The European False Stitchwort thus
emerged from the Ljubljana False Stitchwort.
It belongs to the Pink family, to which carnations also belong. It
is 10-15 cm high and has bright green lanceolate leaves. The petals
are white, heart-shaped. The flowers are a speciality, which are borne
on the lower parts of the plant and which do not open, though the seed
develops in them. The underground tuber has already been mentioned.
It grows in damp forests and among shrubs on the southeastern
flanks of the Alps, most frequently around Klagenfurt, Graz and
Ljubljana.
The classical locality of the European False-stitchwort, Pod
Turnom behind Tivoli castle, was protected as a natural monument in
1984 because of its historical and cultural importance.