Would you like to be at least for a day in places far from civilization? Breathe in the clean air filled with the aroma of honey and pine needles, grass and forest flowers, instead of car burns and eternal street dust? Enjoy the harmonious melody of bird twittering instead of the bored cacophony of the noise of big cities? Recognize yourself not as a faceless cog of a huge human mechanism, but as a single part of an infinite nature? Then go to Sochi - in the city there is such an amazing corner ...
General information
This yew-boxwood grove is a unique, one-of-a-kind natural monument of the flora of the preglacial period. A true natural open-air museum. There are growing species of trees and shrubs that are simply no longer on the ground. And the age of adult plant specimens exceeds 2 thousand years. A relic yew-boxwood grove spreads along the eastern slope of Akhun Mountain. From over 600 meters high, stunning views of the sea, the city panorama, the surroundings up to Pitsunda and the Caucasian mountain range open up. Akhun is located in Khost, a once independent village, then a microdistrict within Sochi. The Khostinsky microdistrict is famous not only for its healing water sources, beaches, a huge number of tourists and vacationers (with a population of 20 thousand people, 120 thousand come there during the holiday season). Its main attraction is the yew-boxwood grove, which since 1931 has been a conservation area and is part of the Caucasus Nature Reserve.
Traveling by Time Machine
The area of the park is rather big - 302 hectares. At the entrance you will be greeted by a sculpture of a leopard, which bared its mouth in a formidable growl and springing its body for a decisive jump. This is a guard, the embodiment of the ancient spirit, under the protection of which there is a yew-boxwood grove. It kind of warns visitors to be attentive and careful to this corner of nature, inexplicably preserving its original appearance despite the destructive management of man. It’s breathtaking when you walk among the very species of trees that grew here 30 million years ago. Looking at them, you imagine how our planet once looked like. Sochi yew-boxwood grove - a real time machine, transporting us to the vast past! And it got its name thanks to the yew berry and boxwood - very rare now and very valuable plant species.
Originality of breeds
Yew berry is also called mahogany, or greenery. This is coniferous species, in which berries grow instead of ordinary cones, and the color of the wood resembles
ship pines glorified by Shishkin
. The height of the trees ranges from 10 to 20 meters. But the yew-boxwood grove in Sochi is striking in another - the age of green pets. It's hard to believe, but real elders grow here. After all, the age of yew is neither more nor less than one and a half thousand years! And this is even under not very favorable growth conditions. In general, handsome men raise their peaks to the sky for 3.5-4 thousand years! These are centenarians, aren't they?
Along the way, note, we give such interesting information from the world of botany. Sochi yew-boxwood grove, the photo of which you see in the article, belongs to the category of young. But in Scotland grows Fortingel 5-thousand-year-old yew. Moreover, as it is customary to talk about youthful retirees, it is remarkably preserved, strong and vigorous. According to legend, under him was born Pontius Pilate, in his shadow were children's games and amusements of the future first procurator of Judea. Great, right? True, yew trees grow very slowly, a few millimeters a year. Perhaps this is the secret of their longevity.
Road way
Doesn’t it, you already seem unusually curious yew-boxwood grove? How to get into it - this is the second question that interests you. Calm down: it's simple. If you are in Sochi, then you should get to the Khosta district. Next, find Boxwood Street. You can walk or ride a minibus. By public transport, get to the stop with the mysterious name Blue Hole. Then walk about a kilometer and a half.
An asphalt road leads you directly to the gates of the reserve. If you go to the stop of the Hosta-Golubaya Gorka (Bridge), then the journey time to the park will be reduced to 15 minutes. In the same way, if the place of your constant vacation is Adler.
Yew-boxwood grove (reserve) is open from 9 am to 6 pm. Experienced people are advised to go camping after lunch - then there is less influx of tourist groups. And to take a little food in order to have a bite: the appetite is always played out in nature! Naturally, admission is by ticket. The exception is children up to 7 years. Tours are conducted along the small and large routes. The second, of course, is more interesting, since it lasts almost 4 hours, it involves traveling through gorges, swimming in a mountain river, and penetrating the virgin part of the "jungle". But it is also more difficult, it requires some physical endurance. True, all the inconvenience is more than compensated by enthusiastic emotions and positive vivid impressions.
Miracle Boxwood
But let us return to another permanent inhabitants of the park, who gave it the name - boxwood. Unlike their neighbors - yew, these trees belong to the breed of stunted, almost dwarf. Their usual height is 2 meters. Sometimes they reach 10 m. However, this does not detract from their value and uniqueness! Firstly, the wood of these evergreen "gnomes" is so strong that the trees are called iron. And heavy, so it drowns in water. This breed also has a name - buxus. Colchis boxwood growing in a grove is unique and is listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation. Interestingly, Orthodox Christians in Georgia, and Catholics in Western Europe, have long adorned churches and their homes with wreaths of boxwood branches on Palm Sunday.
The rest of the flora and fauna of the reserve
In addition to these relics, about 300 species of various plants grow in the grove. This is a laurel cherry bush (the one from which the winners were crowned in ancient Greece and Rome), wild walnut (hazel), yellow rhododendron, linden and hornbeam, oaks and maples, mock orange, Colchis stalk - this is a small list of the representatives of the reserve's flora. Add to them tropical creepers, fragrant honeysuckle, wild grapes. And the endless variety of meadow herbs. In general, according to scientists, every 5th representative of the plant world in the grove is a relic or endemic. Some of them are found only here - and nowhere else in the world. As for the fauna, then it is striking in its diversity and diversity. Here are found bisons, deer, moose, chamois and Transcaucasian tours, roe deer and wild boars, squirrels, hares, raccoons, minks, otters, beavers. As well as predators: lynxes, wolves, bears. Plus, small rodents, snakes and lizards ... 8 species of animals from the yew-boxwood grove are listed in the International Red Book, 25 in the Red Book of the Russian Federation.
Welcome to the miracle reserve!