Fanatele Botenilor - Bota Mare meadow-steppe habitat

Two very small patches of ruderalized meadow-steppe are here, both dedicated to the protection of the unique Transylvanian sites of Paeonia tenuifolia

Supposedly the ruderalisation of the site was produced by the so tiny dimensions of the two patches of habitats, which are completely surrounded by cropfields and a belt of Robinia pseudaccacia bordering the forest nearby. Though the prospects from the Natural Science Museum from Targu-Mures city still inform us that this species still grows on a hayfield called Secalusii valley near Valea Lunga (a village placed not far away from here) the species with its entire habitat are totally extinct there since 1962 (irronically the same year when an ample study about the Fanatele Botenilor hayfields was published in the national jornal "Nature Protection" / "Ocrotirea Naturii" by E. Ghisa; the article informs about the existence at Sacalusa valley of some populations of Paeonia tenuifolia larger than those at Zau - Fanatele Botenilor).

However from the site, though Paeonia tenuifolia survived due to the energic efforts of its merituous peasant local ranger, other rare species from the site were completely ignored by the specialists and are completely lost from here though some studies still mention them from here due to ignorance about the actual local reality. These are Serratula wolffii and Adonis volgensis.

These files, 1 and 2 will provide you the exact position of the two small patches of meadow-steppe grasslands on Google Earth.