Thracian christ's thorn scrub

Description (English)

Paliurus spina-christi thickets and scrub of the rim and hills of the Northern Thracian plain (East Rumelian plain) of eastern and southeastern Bulgaria, remnants of flower-rich bushy steppe communities of specific Thracian character, harbouring species of both sub-Mediterranean and Ponto-Pannonic or Central Eurasian affinities, including Jasminum fruticans, Prunus tenella (Amygdalus nana), Paeonia peregrina (Paeonia decora), Paeonia tenuifolia, Tulipa aureolinea, Tulipa urumoffii, Adonis vernalis, Adonis flammea, Adonis aestivalis, Ranunculus illyricus, Salvia nutans, Verbascum phoeniceum, Milium vernale, Scandix australis, Phlomis herba-venti ssp. pungens (Phlomis pungens), Phlomis tuberosa, which still covered vast expanses at the beginning of the century but which may now be largely extinct in their most developed form.

Source: EUNIS habitat classification