The arrival of spring is always an unrivaled miracle. Nature awakens, filled with energy and life. The arrival of spring is also signaled by sounds unique to this season. Finally, after a long winter, primroses wake up – fragile plants that at the same time show great strength to break through the snow and bloom. In our region, such plants are common snowdrop, two-leaved snowdrop, white spring flower, Heifel’s saffron and others.
Unfortunately, many primroses are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine, such as: snowdrop, white flower, saffron, bear’s onion. They need careful treatment, therefore their collection for bouquets, as well as early spring burning of the grass, is prohibited.
The issue of preserving primroses was devoted to students of the 3rd grade “Tavor” of the Uzhhorod Greek Catholic private lyceum “TheoBand” on the first day of spring, which was conducted by Olga Velychkanych, head of the biology and experimental work department of the “Transcarpathian Regional Center for Children’s and Youth Creativity “PADIUN”, and IERS expert.
Light-loving and moisture-loving, spring ephemeroids hurry to bloom and set seeds before the arrival of a hotter and drier period of the year and their suppression by other plants. They are the first to bloom, until the trees are covered with leaves and the grass is thick. Nutrients stored by plants in the underground parts since last year enable them to develop very quickly in the spring.
The anthropogenic factor has the most noticeable negative impact on these plants. Picking primroses is extremely harmful to the environment because it prevents the flowers from forming seeds, and plucking them with bulbs results in their complete destruction. Neighboring flowers are also damaged, stems and buds are broken, and each plucked plant represents the loss of 15-20 seeds that could produce a new generation of plants.
As a result, a workshop on how to make spring flowers was ideal. It’s worth mentioning that we approached this workshop with an awareness of the importance of preserving natural resources. After all, the arrangements were made with earlier used paper. So, let’s protect the beauty of nature of our native land! They are really worth it!
The event took place within the framework of cooperation between the Institute of Ecological and Religious Studies- IERS (headed by Alexander Bokotey) and the Nature Conservation Union of Germany (NABU Bundesverband, NABU International), project coordinators – Ivan Tymofeiev (NABU), and financially supported by VGP Foundation.
Olga Velychkanych,
Head of the department of biology and experimental work of the “Transcarpathian regional center of children’s and youth creativity “PADIUN”and expert of the IERS