Pancic's journeys - Serbia

 

Typical localities:

Aleksinac, Beograd, Brdjani, Bucje, Derventa, djerdap, Grdelica, Ivica, Javor, Jelašnica, Kladovo, Kopaonik, Kragujevac, Medvednik, Mokra gora, Niš, Ozren, Panjica, Povlen, Raška, Ravanica, Stara planina, Stol, Suva planina, Tara planina, Užice, Ulj kamen, Vlasina, Vrška cuka, Vranje, Zlatibor, Zlot

Pancic commenced his investigations concerned with the flora of Serbia as far back as 1846, when he, at the insistance of Vuk Karadžic, came to Serbia. Ever since, until his death in 1888, he has intensively studied its plant life.  The obtained research results won him the international reputation as the most distinguished European botanists of the last century, and ranked Serbia  as floristically the most significant European country.

During his 42-year work, Pancic surveyed botanically almost the whole of Serbia. The research results relating to this region are collected into his two, certainly the most significant sets: Flora of the Principality of Serbia published in 1874 and the Supplement to the Flora of the Principality of Serbia  published in 1884 (both sets are in Serbian).

In the preserved herbarium collection Herbarium pancicianus there are more than 10,000 exsiccates collected by Pancic in almost 500 varying localities in Serbia. His most significant floristic discoveries Pancic made surveying the regions of Aleksinc, Beograd, Brdjane, Bucje, Derventa, Djerdapska klisura, Grdelica, Ivica, Javor, Jelašnica, Kladovo, Kopaonik, Kragujevac, Medvednik, Mokra Gora, Niš, Ozren, Panjica, Povlen, Raška, Ravanica, Stara planina, Stola, Suva planina, Tara, Užice, Ulj kamen, Vlasina, Vrška cuka, Vranje, Zlatibor i Zlot, which represent locus classicus for a number of Pancic’s taxa of which the most significant are: Acer intermedium, Allium melanantherum, Althaea kragujevacensis, Barbarea balcana, Bupleurum pachnospermum, Campanula secundiflora, Cardamine pancicii, Cardamine serbica, Centaurea calvescens, Centaurea derventana, Centaurea melanocephala, Centaurea orientalis var. armata, Cirsium heterotrichum, Coronilla elegans, Delphinium uechtritzianum, Dianthus liliodorus, Dianthus moesiacus, Dianthus papillosus, Eryngium palmatum, Eryngium serbicum, Erysimum commatum, Euphorbia pancicii, Euphorbia subhastata, Genista subcapitata, Geum molle, Haptophyllum boissierianum, Heliosperma monachorum, Heracleum verticillatum, Hieracium balcanum, Hieracium marmoreum, Hieracium schultzianum, Hieracium vranjanum, Jurinea subhastata, Koeleria eriostachya, Lathyrus binatus, Linaria rubioides, Malcolmia serbica, Mulgedium pancicii, Mulgedium sonchifolium, Orobanche esulae, Orobus pubescens, Pancicia serbica, Parietaria serbica, Pastinaca hirsuta, Pedicularis heterodonta, Picea omorika, Potentilla visianii, Potentilla mollis, Ramonda nathaliae, Ramonda serbica, Reichardia macrophylla, Rosa belgradensis, Satureja panciciana, Scabiosa achaeta, Scabiosa fumarioides, Senecio erubescens, Stachys anisochila, Stachys chrysophaea, Stachys serbica, Thlaspi avalanum, Tragopogon pterodes, Trifolium trichopterum.

Nevertheless, Pancic dedicated particular attention and time to the survey of the flora in the surrounding of Belgrade, to the living world of Mt Kopaonik  as well as to the regions of Mts Tara and Zvijezda in which he spent much time searching for his most well known botanical discovery - Serbian spruce.