The Slovak Center of Scientific Tourism (CVM) is sending 50 seeds of a rare nettle-tree to Prince Charles at his own request

The Slovak Center of Scientific Tourism (CVM) is sending 50 seeds of a rare nettle-tree to Prince Charles at his own request, the CVM director Viliam Pichler told CTK today. The seeds will be sent through the British Embassy to the country seat of Prince Charles at Highgrove. "We are sending the seeds at the request of Prince Charles who visited Slovakia last year," Pichler said. "Prince Charles visited the Badinsky virgin forest in central Slovakia and was astonished by the local vegetation and especially the nettle- tree. The seeds which we are sending to Slovakia come from the natural reservation Simonka in the Slanske forests, east Slovakia. Some 500 of these rare trees are growing there now," he said. The nettle-tree is a rare kind of tree of the elm family, which has survived a dangerous disease of trees whose leaves get dry and brown. Infected trees in almost all cases die. In the past years this rare tree disappeared from almost all European countries including England. The nettle-tree has a high quality wood and it is also praised for its esthetic value. In Slovakia this tree grows sporadically in original forests and virgin forest reservations especially among maples. The closest existence of this three has been recorded in Ukraine, Pichler said.