Romania’s Letea Forest
by Robert-Phillip Bazoiu
Romania is proud to call Letea Forest its oldest natural reservation - and it has a good reason to being the only forest in Europe where lianas grow. The flowers lend the area a genuine subtropical aspect. As if lianas in Eastern Europe weren’t peculiar enough, Romania's Letea Forest impresses its visitors even more with all its vegetation growing on sand. The combination of the sound of galloping wild horses, rare tropical plants, and sandy terrain all make for a truly extraordinary sight. Found in the equally astounding Danube Delta, Romania's Letea Forest is home to a wide variety of trees such as the Narrow-Leafed Ash, Silver Lime, White Poplar, Black Poplar, and the English Oak, all of them growing bent over and contorted as they follow the water’s course within the soil. Some of these trees have enjoyed the forest’s sands for as much as seven hundred years, more than enough time for wild vines to weave themselves into intricate patterns along their branches. Scattered throughout Romania's Letea Forest one can find wooden benches, crafted from the remains of fallen trees, so one can stare in awe at this seemingly timeless display of trees and sand dunes while catching one’s breath. At the end of the day, one realizes that Romania's Letea Forest stands out as a forest in a niche of its own, far away from more commonplace landscapes and closer to something more surreal, something that serves to remind, nature itself is oft times unconventional.
Explaining why the trees there are bent over.
Seeing as this is my first written blog post I'd be happy with receiving as much feedback as possible. Thanks!
Romania’s Letea Forest
Romanias Letea Forest
