Rejvíz
Encyclopedia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
n village in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
(757 metres above sea level
Above mean sea level
The term above mean sea level refers to the elevation or altitude of any object, relative to the average sea level datum. AMSL is used extensively in radio by engineers to determine the coverage area a station will be able to reach...
), and an administrative part of Zlaté Hory
Zlaté Hory
Zlaté Hory is a town in the Jeseník District, Olomouc Region, Czech Republic, on the border with Poland. It has a population of 4,447 . The town was founded in 1224.Administrative parts: Rejvíz, Horní a Dolní Údolí and Ondřejovice...
. It is also the most important tourist
Tourism in the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, and in particular the capital Prague, has become one of the major tourist destinations in Europe. Other highly-visited destinations include Karlštejn Castle, Kutná Hora, Český Krumlov, and Lednice.-Nightlife:...
area in the northern part of the Protected Landscape Territory of Jeseník
Jeseník
Jeseník , Frývaldov until 1948 is a city and a district in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic.- Districts :* Bukovice * Dětřichov * Jeseník * Lázně Jeseník - History :...
.
The Rejvíz Guesthouse is a popular sight because of its wooden interior from the early 20th century, carved by its owners, the Brauner brothers. Its part are also chairs with carved faces of regular customers of that time (image). In the time of the communist regime it was called Nosek Cottage (Noskova chata), after the first Czechoslovak
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
communist Minister of Interior Václav Nosek.
Rejvíz is also a natural reserve, founded in 1955, covering 3.97 km² and composed of the largest peat bog in Moravia
Moravia
Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
and Moravian Silesia
Czech Silesia
Czech Silesia is an unofficial name of one of the three Czech lands and a section of the Silesian historical region. It is located in the north-east of the Czech Republic, predominantly in the Moravian-Silesian Region, with a section in the northern Olomouc Region...
with small lakes of glacial
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
origin. An instructive natural path was opened in 1970 and leads from the Rejvíz Guesthouse to the Great Moss
Moss
Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems...
Lake in the western part of the natural reserve. It is 1.5 km long and there are six stops with information boards.
The area of the Great Moss Lake is 1,692 m². It is 68.5 m long and 41 m wide. Its depth is 2.95 m. Another lake, the Small Moss Lake, lies in the north-eastern part of the natural reserve. However, nowadays it is completely overgrown with plants. The thickness of the peat layer is 6.6 m in this area, twice more than at the Great Moss Lake. The Small Moss Lake is not accessible to the public.
The peat bog is very rich in spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
s. Other species living here include Alpine Newt
Alpine Newt
The Alpine Newt is a newt of the Salamander order Caudata in the class of Amphibians.-Description:...
, Carpathian Newt
Carpathian Newt
The Carpathian Newt is a species of salamander in the Salamandridae family.It is found in Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine....
and Moor Frog
Moor Frog
The Moor Frog is a slim, reddish-brown, semi-aquatic amphibian native to Europe and Asia. It is a member of the family Ranidae, or "true frogs".-Taxonomy:...
. Moorland Clouded Yellow and Subarctic Hawker are glacial relict
Relict
A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon.* In biology a relict is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas....
s. When the last ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
ended many species moved to northern territories of Europe, but peat bogs provided good conditions for some of them here too.
The area is surrounded with woods consisting mainly of spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
s, which are replaced with mountain pine
Mountain Pine
Pinus mugo, the Mountain Pine or Mugo Pine, is a high-altitude European pine, found in the Pyrenees, Alps, Erzgebirge, Carpathians, northern Apennines and Balkan Peninsula mountains from 1,000 m to 2,200 m, occasionally as low as 200 m in the north of the range in Germany and Poland, and as high...
s towards the centre. The meadows are very rich in species of various plants. Among the most common ones there are horsetails, Wood Club-rush
Scirpus
The plant genus Scirpus consists of a large number of aquatic, grass-like species in the family Cyperaceae , many with the common names club-rush or bulrush . Other common names are deergrass or grassweed.The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, and grows in wetlands and moist soil...
, Cirsium rivulare
Cirsium
Cirsium is a genus of perennial and biennial flowering plants in the Asteraceae, one of several genera known commonly as thistles. They are more accurately known as Plume thistles. These differ from other thistle genera in having feathered hairs to their achenes...
and Meadowsweet
Meadowsweet
Filipendula ulmaria, commonly known as Meadowsweet, is a perennial herb in the family Rosaceae that grows in damp meadows. It is native throughout most of Europe and Western Asia...
. There are also a lot of rare species, such as Few-flower Sedge
Carex pauciflora
Carex pauciflora is a perennial species of sedge in the family Cyperaceae native to Holarctic wetlands....
, Fibrous Tussock-sedge
Carex appropinquata
Carex appropinquata is a species of plants in the family Cyperaceae, commonly known as sedges.- Synonyms :* Carex paniculata var. paradoxa Fiori* Carex paradoxa Willd....
, Flea Sedge, Tufted Loosestrife
Lysimachia thyrsiflora
Lysimachia thyrsiflora, commonly known as Tufted Loosestrife, is a plant in the genus Lysimachia. It is native to large sections of the northern Northern Hemisphere, including Eurasia and North America. It often grows in marshes, shorelines of lakes and ponds and occasionally along streams...
or Gladiolus imbricatus
Gladiolus
Gladiolus is a genus of perennial bulbous flowering plants in the iris family...
.
Many other plants can be seen at the moss lakes, for example Sphagnum
Sphagnum
Sphagnum is a genus of between 151 and 350 species of mosses commonly called peat moss, due to its prevalence in peat bogs and mires. A distinction is made between sphagnum moss, the live moss growing on top of a peat bog on one hand, and sphagnum peat moss or sphagnum peat on the other, the...
moss, Cotton-grass
Cotton-grass
Eriophorum is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the family Cyperaceae, the Sedge family. They are found throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere in acid bog habitats, being particularly abundant in Arctic tundra regions.They are herbaceous perennial plants with slender,...
, Marsh Labrador Tea
Marsh Labrador Tea
Rhododendron tomentosum , commonly known as Marsh Labrador tea, northern Labrador tea or wild rosemary, is a flowering plant in the subsection Ledum of the large genus Rhododendron in the family Ericaceae....
and carnivorous
Carnivorous plant
Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. Carnivorous plants appear adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, such as acidic...
Common Sundew
Drosera rotundifolia
Drosera rotundifolia is a species of sundew, a carnivorous plant often found in bogs, marshes and fens...
.