Do you often walk across bridges? The life without bridges would make our existence too single bank by walking along only one side of the river. This small piece of the universe, whose purpose is apparently nothing more than a path that leads you to the people on the other side, hides itself much more magic than it may seem at the first sight. Let´s try to find it out together – let’s take a walk across the probably most famous bridge in Czechia and have a bit different look.
The Charles Bridge is a leading Czech medieval architectural monument, its construction started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV, a legend says that eggs were used to enrich the mortar etc. But we are not interested in history and a unique Baroque statues are absolutely boring for us too. Saturday 4th August 2007, exactly 6 hours in the morning – I was walking with botanists Pavol Eliáš and Petr Krása across the Charles Bridge and its surroundings and were interested in plants only. What species of plants can we find in such place?
“The bridge is like an old wall,” said Palo Eliáš, our web colleague from Slovak town Nitra, inter alia, professionally specializes in the vegetation and habitats affected by human activities. “So we can find plants of rock fissures (eg. Asplenium ruta-muraria), ruderal species transmitted by humans (eg. Chenopodium album) as well as species whose seeds have been spread by wind (eg. Betula, Salix etc.).” What was really interesting, that directly on the Charles Bridge we encountered one endangered and protected species – the Eastern Marsh Fern (Thelypteris palustris). Big surprise, however, showed off through one sewer cover in the pavement of the Charles Bridge. Palo Eliáš once cried out: “Oh no, it is not possible, because this is a melon!” Indeed! The seeds of water melon (Citrullus lanatus) had been taken here by some tourist eating a melon and spitted the seeds out. It seems, that the seeds had been washed by rain to the sewer and then sprouted and now grows here. Unexpected and unprecedented rarity!
This melon adventure motivated us even more explore the flora of the bridge and its surroundings. And indeed it was worth it. On the vault of bridge we found total of 38 species of vascular plants – a relatively large number. Our attention was paid to the wooden ice-breakers because of the unusual occurrence of the White Goosefoot (Chenopodium album) and Gypsywort (Lycopus europaeus) – they grow here directly on wood. The bridge pavement is heavily burdened by shoe soles of thousands tourists, vegetation is therefore very rare. More plants can be found on the outer shell of the bridge and whole garden of flowers we can met on the bridge pillars.
For a better imagination you can find the list of all plants species we found there.
Plants to coat the bridge, pillars, paving and ice guards:
Acer pseudoplatanus
Alnus glutinosa
Arenaria serpyllifolia
Artemisia vulgaris
Asplenium ruta-muraria
Betula pendula
Brassica napus
Capsella bursa-pastoris
Cirsium arvense
Citrullus lanatus
Conyza canadensis
Dryopteris sp.
Echinochloa crus-galli
Eragrostis minor
Erigeron acris
Fragaria vesca
Frangula alnus
Geum urbanum
Chenopodium album
Lactuca seriola
Lepidium ruderale
Lycopus europaeus
Phalaris arundinacea
Plantago major
Platanus x acerifolia
Poa annua
Poa palustris
Polygonum aviculare
Populus tremula
Ribes uva-crispa
Rosa canina
Sagina procumbens
Sedum sexangulare
Senecio vulgaris
Solanum villosum
Stellaria media
Taraxacum sect. Ruderalia
Thelypteris palustris
We subsequently descended to Vltava (Moldau) bank under the bridge and previewed particularly Malá Strana coast in the vicinity of the Charles Bridge. “On the banks are typical representatives of bank flora (eg. Epilobium hirsutum, Phalaris arundinacea, Scrophularia umbrosa), but also numerous species that have escaped from gardens (Impatiens glandulifera, Tagetes patula),” says Palo Eliáš. “In addition to indigenous species we find plants from Southern Europe, but also from North America – really nice show! Altogether we counted 59 species. ”
Plants of bank:
Angelica sylvestris
Artemisia vulgaris
Atriplex patula
Atriplex prostrata
Barbarea stricta
Bidens tripartita
Brassica napus
Bromus inermis
Calamagrostis epigejos
Carduus acanthoides
Carduus crispus
Carex cf. buekii
Carex hirta
Crepis biennis
Cymbalaria muralis
Descurainia sophia
Elymus caninus
Epilobium hirsutum
Epilobium tetragonum
Galinsoga parviflora
Humulus lupulus
Hypericum perforatum
Impatiens glandulifera
Iris pseudacorus
Juncus compressus
Lobularia maritima
Lolium perenne
Lycopus europaeus
Lysimachia vulgaris
Lythrum salicaria
Melilotus albus
Mentha longifolia
Myosoton aquaticum
Oenothera canovirens
Persicaria maculata
Persicaria mitis
Phalaris arundinacea
Poa compressa
Poa palustris
Robinia pseudacacia
Rorippa palustris
Rorippa sylvestris
Rubus caesius
Rumex conglomeratus
Rumex obtusifolius
Salix fragilis
Salix purpurea
Saponaria officinalis
Scrophularia umbrosa
Scutellaria galericulata
Silene vulgaris
Solanum dulcamara
Solanum villosum
Sonchus oleraceus
Stachys palustris
Stenactis annua
Tagetes patula
Tripleurospermum inodorum
Urtica dioica
Valerianella cf. locusta
Our floristic exploration of the Charles Bridge is last for a long time – the Charles Bridge is awaiting a big correction. We believe that the Mother Nature wins again and a new coat of our national glory to turn green to delight the eyes of all passionate florists.
