RESEARCH ARTICLE

CONVERSIONS OF Robinia pseudoacacia STANDS TO WOODLANDS OF NATIVE TREES IN URBAN FORESTS OF PRAGUE

Abstract

Urban forests in Prague cover 5176 ha which represents slightly more than 10% of the city area. The forests in Prague in the present time are managed to deliver chiefly environmental and recreational functions. For more than a century, the area of forests in the city is slowly growing due to afforestation schemes. This modern history of forests in Prague begun in the early 1900s. A fundament of forests in Prague represented fragments of preserved greenery such as phesantries, game enclosures or remnants of woods situated close to Prague that were successively absorbed by the rapidly expanding city. Since the beginning of the 20th century, some purposeful management of forests and woodlands in Prague has been launched. This was originally aimed at afforestation of abandoned pastures on shallow soils. A very popular tree species for afforestation was black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) at that time. The expected ameliorative effects of the Robinia pseudoacacia have proven overestimated and the adverse effects of the alien species successively prevailed. Robinia pseudoacacia began to behave invasively and form dense stands dominated by nitrophilous vegetation at the expense of native herbaceous and woody plants. However, the expectations of the general public in Prague have changed to some extent since that time. The existence of old stands of invasive black locust established in the first half of the 20th century on extreme sites with shallow soils belongs among highly topical silvicultural problems in forests of Prague at present.

Keywords: black locust; invasive tree species; artificial forest regeneration; underplanting; large-sized planting stock

How to Cite: Kunes,I, Balas,M,Gallo,J,Linda,R, (2018). CONVERSIONS OF Robinia pseudoacacia STANDS TO WOODLANDS OF NATIVE TREES IN URBAN FORESTS OF PRAGUE.WILDLANKA, 6(3):Pages 118-125

Published On:2018-09-30

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