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Animals and Plants

Our Plants

WOODY PLANTS OF THE ZAGREB ZOO
IGOR POLJAK
 

Woody Plants of the Zoo
The Zoo was established on June 27th 1925 and covers a surface of 7 hectares. It is situated in the southern part of the Maksimir Park in the area of the old Common Oak and Common Hornbeam woodland (Forest community of Carpino betuli - Quercetum roboris).

In 2006 as part of a dissertation from a dendrology course authored by Ivan Poljak, the process of identifying and cataloguing woody plant species was initiated.

There are a total of 156 different species catalogued in the Zoo (114 species, 1 variety, 8 crossbreeds and 33 cultivars). Gymnosperms are represented with 16 species, 1 crossbreed and 10 cultivars, and the angiosperms are represented with 93 species, 1 variety, 7 crossbreeds and 23 cultivars.

The Zoo distinguishes itself by a wide variety of woody plant species, autochthonous as well as allochthonous, which add special value not only to the Zoo itself, but also to the woody plants of the Maksimir Park as a whole.


Autochthonous and Allochthonous woody plants
Characteristic species belonging to the forest community of the Peduncled Oak and Common Hornbeam grow throughout the area of the Zoo, so one can observe: the Common Hornbeam, all three species of Croatia’s autochthonous linden, the Champion Field Maple, the Common Hazel, the Common Spindle, hawthorns etc.

A wide number of autochthonous species from various parts of Croatia have been planted: the Common Beech, which is our most represented species, the European Black Pine, the Mountain Pine, the Common Fir, the Weeping Norway Spruce, the Narrow-Leafed Ash, the European Black Alder, the Great Maple and protected species such as the Common Yew, the European Holly and the Common Periwinkle.

A great number of exotic, i.e. allochthonous species indigenous to Asia (the Cowtail Pine, the Pagoda Tree, the White Mulberry, various species from the meadowsweet, cotoneaster and bamboo genus) and North America (the Blue Spruce, the Western Red and Northern White Cedar, the Eastern White Pine, the Kentucky Coffeetree, the Locust Tree etc.) can also bee observed at the Zoo Garden.


Tablet
Of the total number of plants, 118 have been marked with three different kinds of tablets: large tablets (40×40cm) for the most significant autochthonous and allochthonous tree species (15 in total); mid-sized tablets (29.7×21cm) for important autochthonous and allochthonous species of trees and shrubs (40 in total) and small tablets (15 x 10) for less important species and cultivars as well as important species which reoccur throughout the garden.


Interesting facts
There is a Swamp Cypress tree located on the so-called first island, for which it is believed that it has the widest trunk of its kind in Croatia. This cypress has enormous dimensions, reaching 34 meters in height and 5.75 meters in diameter at chest height (1.30 m).

Of the allochthonous species, there are two very interesting tertiary relicts (species that have suffered a narrowing of the areal, i.e. natural habitat during the Tertiary period) – the Gingko and the Bosnian Pine.

The most interesting of the crossbreeds are the large trees of the London Plane, for which it is believed that they have been created by crossbreeding the Oriental Plane and the American Plane.

There are many different species with edible fruits (oaks (acorns), beeches (mast), hazels (hazelnuts), hawthorns (haws) etc.) on which the birds and various forest animals, including our Zoo’s inhabitants, feed.

Trees