Trail type: Botanical trails
Trail difficulty: Medium
The shorter route in Lanišće takes you through the village of Račje Selo, across the Orljak hill and back. Following the hiking trail past an abandoned quarry, you will reach a European hop-hornbeam and autumn moor grass community, which is a secondary forest community and a transitional form of the European hop-hornbeam or downy oak community. You will notice numerous ferns and other plants typical of communities growing on rocks along the path. Large, white inflorescences on rocks belong to an umbellifer called the candy carrot (Athamanta turbith). Another interesting plant is the pale corydalis (Pseudofumaria alba), a species that loves shady places common in high karst areas. At the very top of Orljak, you will come across a wide range of grassland species typical of the sedge and karst knapweed community growing at this altitude. At the very top of Orljak, you will find some common species, such as the great yellow gentian, mountain kidney vetch, Trieste spring gentian and Austrian viper’s grass. Then you descend back to Račje Selo through a typical Illyrian beech forest, where you can also admire numerous geomorphological karst formations.
