The Steppe Peony Nature Reserve in Zau de Câmpie
Full description
The fame of the Botanical Reserve from Zau de Campie, located in Mures near the city of Luduş, has crossed the border of Romania, so for a few years visitors are arriving from several countries to admire the steppe peony (Paeonia tenuifolia).
The 3.5-hectare reserve includes about 50,000 peonies.
There are other places in the world where steppe peonies are present, but nowhere else grows this plant at such a high altitude (450-500 m), as in Zau de Câmpie. It is also the only place in Romania in which this peony species develops.
The steppe peony of Zau de Câmpie first came to the attention of Western botanists in the first half of the nineteenth century, being presented to scholars in the capital of Austria. In the Zau de Câmpie botanical reserve, besides the steppe peony, there are also other rare plant species (350 in number), among which the Wild Iris, the Astragalus dasyanthus Pall, the Dictamnus albus, the Chess-flower or the Green-winged Orchid (Orchis morio) - a small domestic species of orchids.
