81. Vidoule Natural Monument (PP)

Eastern and partly also the northern and southern edges of the Vidoule plateau above Jinonice and Cibulka. Cadastre: Jinonice. Area: 6.69 ha. Elevation: 330 - 350 m above sea level. Established by the Ordinance of Prague Municipality No. 4/1988 of July 4, 1988.

Distinct table mountain consisting in a relic of horizontal Cretaceous strata with outcrops on the edge. Refuge of minor animals and significant landscape element.

Example of a table mountain, geological profiles of the Peruc-Koryčany formation of the Cenomanian with numerous sandstone outcrops, covered with a layer of marles to marlites of the Lower Turonian, forming a plateau (outside the protected area). The number of fossils includes Inoceramus labiatus, Enoploclythia leachi and Rhynchostreon suborbiculatum. Below the Cretaceous strata there are folded shales and sandstones of the Beroun step of the Ordovician. Mostly oligobasic brown soils, locally enriched with marlite outwash, often disturbed by past quarrying. Aquifer.

Prevailing secondary poor, often semiruderal vegetation. The walls of the geological profile are mostly overgrown with planted false acacia and wind-swept elder, aspen and willow. Only the southern slope hosts thermophilous grass with Brachypodium pinnatum and Festuca rupicola on former balks and pastures.

From the number of beetles of steppe character even some significant species have been ascertained, including Ophonus schaubergerianus and Cymindis angularis from the ground beetles. The phytophagous beetles include e.g. Coptodephala rubicunda and Cryptocephalus violaceus from the leaf beetles, Aphtona cyanella from the flea beetles, Cassida rufovirens, Urodon conformis, the wingless Otiorhynchus fullo and O. velutinus from the snout beetles, three species of the Trachyphloeus family, and others. The southern open slope hosts the molluscs including the endangered Chondrula tridens. The rich bushes are the nesting site of such birds as the yellowhammer, the blackcap, the mistle thrush, today only solitary red-backed shrike, and the common warbler. The nightingale and other species stop regularly in passing.

The northern part has been forested artificially, mostly with non-indigenous scots pine. Vegetation of a more natural structure can be found below the horizontal road. On the eastern side there is a border of older oaks, the southern slope is covered with thermophilous vegetation. The remainder is free of woods or overgrowing with shrubs.

The woods are exploited in accordance with the protection regime. In the past the whole edge of the Vidoule plateau was bordered with sandstone quarries, as a result of which the sandstones appear as rock walls, particularly on the northern side.

At present the protected area is incorporated into the Košíře - Motol natural park the forest complex of which on the northern slope merges with the forested plateau edge and includes also the vegetation in the park of the historical farmstead of Cibulka.

Skalický (1986), Ziegler (1994).

Outcrops of Cenomanian sandstones at the edge of the table mountain in the Vidoule national monument.

Koeleria gracilis grows on sunny sandy and loamy slopes.

Melanardia galathea from the satyrs ranks among typical inhabitants of the traditionally exploited meadows.

Inoceramus labiatus from the bivalves.

Protected areas

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