While it is easy to miss the white-flowering umbelliferous plant with its single or double pinnate leaves, it is well worth a close examination. The Hladnikia (Hladnikia pastinacifolia) was named after the first Slovene botanist and founder of the Botanical Garden in Ljubljana, Franc Hladnik (1773-1844), who discovered it on Mt Čaven in 1819, but it was only described and named after its finder in 1831.

It is the only endemite among the Slovene flora for it differs so greatly from neighboring species that it is considered to be representative of a monotypic species. The hladnikia is 15 to 30 cm high, with pinnate basal leaves, their shiny green segments are ovoid and jagged. The white flowers are in an umbel. It’s not fussy about sites and can grow amidst grasses as well as on rocky clefts. It flourishes in the Trnovo Forest, between Čaven and Kucelj to the south and Zeleni rob and Poldanovec to the north.

As an ancient endemite, it is considered a rare species on the Red List. In the Juliana Garden, it has spread from its original flower bed and we can often see it growing successfully along many paths.