Discovery of the Serbian spruce (Picea omorika)
Descubrimiento del abeto serbio (Picea omorika)
- Date
- 1875 · confidence high
- Place
- Zaovine, Tara Mountain, Serbia
- Credited to
- Josif Pančić
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Botanist Josif Pančić described in 1875 a relict conifer of the Drina canyons, endemic to the western Balkans. It is a 'living fossil' of the Tertiary flora, which disappeared from most of Europe in the ice ages.
Pančić described it from specimens in the Zaovine area (Tara) and named it Pinus omorika; today it is Picea omorika. It was the region's emblematic plant, already known to local shepherds.
What it led to
- study of glacial refugia in the Balkans
- ornamental use of the Serbian spruce in Europe and North America