Jezioro Czarne Nature Reserve

Jezioro Czarne ("Black Lake") is slowly ceasing to be a lake. Its dark, acidic water is being overgrown from the shores, and carnivorous plants and rare mosses grow on the floating mat of the bog. This process is protected by one of the oldest reserves in the Zielonka Forest – a botanical reserve set up in 1959 next to the forest hamlet of Czernice in the municipality of Murowana Goślina, not far from Poznań.

History and purpose

The reserve was created by order of the forestry minister on 2 July 1959. The founding act gave its area as 17.75 ha; today it is listed as 16.51 ha. It protects rare plants of dystrophic lakes – lakes with brown, nutrient-poor water – and of the floating mat of a transitional bog. As early as the 1950s botanists surveyed the local mosses and liverworts in detail and found rare species such as shaggy peat moss and fringed bog moss. The reserve lies within Puszcza Zielonka Landscape Park, beside the historic Poznań Road (Trakt Poznański).

What to see

The reserve has two clearly different parts: the western one is an extensive marsh and bog, the eastern one a typical alder carr, a waterlogged alder wood. The western part shows best how the lake is turning into a bog.

• Great fen-sedge (Cladium mariscus) – a tall sedge forming a rare reed bed along the shores.
• Marsh clubmoss – a modest bog plant and one of the main reasons for protection.
• Round-leaved and great sundew – carnivorous plants, together with cranberry and the rare moss Paludella squarrosa.
• The waters of the Zielonka Forest reserves are also home to carnivorous bladderworts (common, lesser and intermediate), and marsh helleborine grows along the shores.

Interesting facts

Czernice is now just a few houses in the forest, but between the wars it had a hikers' hostel, and in 1936 a chapel where Mass was celebrated was set up in one of the houses. The reserve is a neighbour of the forest's other water reserve, Jezioro Pławno (a landscape reserve from 1978, 16.71 ha), covering the lakes Pławno and Kociołek with their surrounding marshes.

Tripto tip

Entry is free, but this is a nature reserve: stay on roads and marked paths, keep off the bog (it is soft and the floating mat is easily damaged) and do not pick plants. There is no car park or visitor infrastructure – 30–45 minutes is enough for a stop by the lake. Coming by bike works best: from Zielonka follow the blue trail for about 1.5 km to the "Gwiazda" (Star) crossroads, turn right onto the Large Cycling Ring (Duży Pierścień Rowerowy) and after about 3 km you will see the reserve on your right and Czernice on your left. Late spring and summer, when the bog plants are in flower, are the most rewarding times.

Nearby

Beyond Czernice the Large Cycling Ring crosses cycle route R-2. Turning right takes you to Pławno and Kamińsko, where Lake Kamińskie has a lifeguarded swimming area. Czernice also lies on a cycling tour suggested by the Puszcza Zielonka inter-municipal association: from Murowana Goślina via Zielonka and Maruszka to Dziewicza Góra (about 30 km). In Zielonka itself, the Forest Arboretum is worth a visit.