Mt. Tara lays in the west of Serbia. Together with a part of the Drina river canyon, it has been established as a national park in 1981.The greatest part of the Park’s area is covered with mixed deciduous-coniferous forests containing beech, spruce, fir, black and Scots pines, jew, alder, birch, etc.

The Drina river canyon and several smaller gorges within the National Park are considered to have been refugial habitats of the old European flora during glaciations, therefore a large number of relict and endemic plants in the area should not come as a surprise.

A fungi species Psilocybe serbica Moser was discovered on Mt. Tara, and here lies the locus classicus as well as the entire recent natural range of Serbian spruce (Picea omorika), a relict stenoendemic tree species, discovered by Josif Pančić, a distinguished Balkan botanist, in 1875. Tara’s vegetation also boasts specific flora which grows on ultrabasic, serpentinitic substrate and includes many Tertiary paleoendemites.

A number of peatbogs along river courses offer remains of different vegetation which dominated the central Balkans during the glacial and interglacial periods. Around 300 macromycetes and 1000 plant species have so far been recorded on Tara.

A number of peatbogs along river courses offer remains of different vegetation which dominated the central Balkans during the glacial and interglacial periods. Around 300 macromycetes and 1000 plant species have so far been recorded on Tara.

Đerdap gorge is a natural system of several deep and narrow gorges and canyons with high and steep crags, interlinked by dales which are wide and open. As the largest European refugium of Tertiary flora and vegetation it is of the most significant area in mountainous part of Serbia. In the Neogene Đerdap complex was a part of the Pannonian Sea coast. In Ice Age its steep calcareous cliffs have yielded protection from the cold air. Continual presence of a large quantity of water, as an accumulator and regulator of heat, has diminished the severe glacial climate influences.

A witness to the continuity of favorable climate in this region is the vegetation of polydominant forests that are of the relict age and with thermophile character. By the number of species and their organization, those forests bear resemblance to the forests in tropics and subtropics. As edificators of communities there appear on equal basis several trees, the Tertiary relicts such as Juglans regia, Corylus colurna, Celtis australis, Fraxinus ornus, Syringa vulgaris.

The flora of this area encompass over the 1000 species with numerous endemics, relicts and rare species. Lepenski Vir, the prehistoric settlement extended over the period from 8000-4500 years B.C. is situated in Đerdap region. Very well preserved remnants of buildings, artifacts and bones point out to the three distinct culture levels with eight successive settlements.