If you are passing through the village of Cherven, Asenovgrad region, there is a centuries-old tree growing in the center of the village that you should not miss seeing.
The ancient plane tree from Cherven is over 500 years old.
The centuries-old plane tree grows right next to the road.
All you have to do is drive carefully through the village, watch out for the centuries-old tree, and then stop by it.
About the plane tree as a species
The plane tree, also known as the plane tree or the apple tree (in Latin Platanus), is a genus of angiosperms – deciduous trees in the plane tree family (Platanaceae). It includes about ten species of large trees, reaching 30 to 50 meters in height. One species (Platanus kerrii) is evergreen, the others change their leaves. In nature, they are found mainly along river banks and in other humid areas, but it is possible to grow them in drier places.
The flowers are reduced and collected in globular inflorescences with 3 to 7 sepals at the base and 3 to 7 petals. The number of flowers in the inflorescences is indicative of the species. Male flowers have 3 to 8 stamens, and female flowers – 3 to 7 pistils. Male and female flowers are separate, but are found on the same plant. Pollination is carried out by the wind.
After pollination, the male flowers fall to the ground, while the female flowers remain on the tree and turn into achenes, clustered in a spherical formation. The ball is 2.5 to 4 centimeters in diameter and has a core with a diameter of about 1 centimeter. It contains several hundred achenes, which are conical in shape and contain one seed each.
The mature bark of plane trees peels easily into irregularly shaped pieces, which gives the trees a mottled, scaly appearance. If the bark is very old, it does not peel, but cracks. Plane trees are among the longest-lived plants.
The genus includes about ten deciduous and evergreen species in the Northern Hemisphere - around the Mediterranean Sea, in North America, in Central and Asia Minor, as well as in Southwestern and Central Europe.
Plane trees also grow along the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus - in Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, on the Crimean peninsula and in Ukraine. In the Old World, only two species of "plane tree" grow in natural conditions - Platanus orientalis (Platanus orientalis) and Platanus kerrii. The natural habitat of the Eastern plane tree is in the Balkans (Albania, Greece, including the islands of Cyprus and Crete, as well as on the islands of the Aegean Sea). It is also distributed on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea (Syria, Lebanon and Israel), as well as in part of the territories of Iran and Afghanistan.
The natural habitat of Platanus kerrii is Indochina (Vietnam, Laos).
In North America, Platanus racemosa (California) and Platanus wrightii, Platanus Mexicana, Platanus lindeniana (Mexico), as well as Western plane tree (USA) grow.
Как се стига до село Червен?
Cherven is a village in Southern Bulgaria, in the Asenovgrad Municipality, Plovdiv District. It is located at an altitude of 412 meters above sea level.
Cherven is located:
192 kilometers (about 2 hours and 20 minutes by car) from the capital
37 kilometers (about 30 minutes by car) from the city of Plovdiv
365 kilometers (about 4 hours and 20 minutes by car) from the city of Varna
250 kilometers (about 2 hours and 30 minutes by car) from the city of Burgas
The village is located in the foothills of the Rhodope Mountains, about ten kilometers south of Asenovgrad on the road to Kardzhali. It is a starting point for the settlements of Gornoslav, Oreshets, Dobrostan, Mostovo, Vrata, Sini Vrah, Bor and Tri Mogili, as well as for the "Martsiganitsa" hut and the Belantash and Krastova Gora rock massifs (via the village of Mostovo).
How do you get to the centuries-old plane tree?
The centuries-old plane tree grows in the center of the village right next to the road.
Ancient trees in Bulgaria
The Granite Oak – the oldest known living creature on the territory of Bulgaria and a centuries-old tree, 17 centuries old.
Before the Granite Oak was accepted as the oldest tree in Bulgaria, it was believed that the Baykusheva Fir in Pirin, thirteen centuries old, was the oldest tree.
The plane tree in the village of Zlatolist near Sandanski is a few decades younger.
In the Chiflika area in the village of Belashtitsa, Plovdiv region, you can see several centuries-old plane trees. The most famous of them is a centuries-old plane tree over 1,100 years old, which is also the thickest tree in Bulgaria.
An oak of the Blagun type, about a thousand years old, is the doyen of Strandzha.
Another oak from the village of Berende, Sofia region, is more than 850 years old.
Dozens of oaks between 350 and 850 years old have been preserved in separate points of the Ludogorie near the present-day towns of Isperih, Kubrat, Samuil and Loznitsa.
The plane tree from the village of Dolnoslav near Asenovgrad is over 800 years old.
Among the veterans are the Kichestiya hornbeam near the village of Turia, Kazanlak, which is about 700 years old, the Dedo-Tonevyya oak near the village of Dolna Vrabcha, Breznik, which is more than 650 years old, its peer from the village of Bosnek, Pernik, the two plane trees over 600 years old near Garmen.
Several dozen trees, about 550 years old, are the surviving representatives of the Strandzha oak, called the liar. Strandzha is the only habitat in Europe of this representative of the ancient flora, the ancestor of all oak species on the continent.
The Big Beech near Krastets in the Tryavna Balkan is over 500 years old.
The Slaveykov oak in the "Lozenets" neighborhood in Sofia - the oldest tree in the capital - is approximately the same age.
One of the young (only 250 years old) future contenders is the centuries-old tser on the road to the village of Kosti in Strandzha.
Unfortunately, some of the emblematic veterans have already dried up as a result of the inexorable actions of nature - such are the summer oak nicknamed the Elephant in the Elena Balkan and the Old Elm in Sliven.
And finally, my dear friends,
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