Belite Brezi ( or Бели Брези:''Beli Brezi'', meaning ''The Silver Birches'') is a resort area in the

Rhodope Mountains The Rhodopes (; , ; , ''Rodopi''; ) are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, and the largest by area in Bulgaria, with over 83% of its area in the southern part of the country and the remainder in Greece. Golyam Perelik is its highest peak ...

of southern

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. The reserve is located from the town of

Kardzhali Kardzhali ( , ''Kărdžali''; ), sometimes spelt Kardžali or Kurdzhali, is List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, a town in the Eastern Rhodopes in Bulgaria, centre of Kardzhali Municipality and Kardzhali Province. The noted Kardzhali Reservoir is ...

and from the town of

Ardino Ardino (, formerly ) is a town in southern Bulgaria, in the Rhodope Mountains. It is located in Kardzhali Province and it is also close to Smolyan. It is famous for its textile industry. It has a machine-building factory and a tobacco manufactu ...

. This is one of the places with the most developed tourism in the area. On its territory there is a holiday house with a total capacity of about 250 beds. The area was created to protect the only naturally growing forest of silver birch (''

Betula pendula ''Betula pendula'', commonly known as silver birch, warty birch, European white birch, or East Asian white birch, is a species of tree in the family (biology), family Betulaceae, native plant, native to Europe and parts of Asia, though in so ...

'') in the Rhodopes. Natural silver birch forests are rare in Bulgaria and the main areas covered in this species are artificially planted. Belite Brezi has an area of about 3680 decares. Other tree species in the forest include European beech (''

Fagus sylvatica ''Fagus sylvatica'', the European beech or common beech, is a large, graceful deciduous tree in the Fagaceae, beech family with smooth silvery-gray bark, large leaf area, and a short trunk with low branches. Description ''Fagus sylvatica'' i ...

''), Scots pine (''

Pinus sylvestris ''Pinus sylvestris'', the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US), Baltic pine, or European red pine is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native plant, native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly s ...

''), Austrian pine (''

Pinus nigra ''Pinus nigra'', the Austrian pine or black pine, is a moderately variable species of pine, occurring across Southern Europe from the Iberian Peninsula and Lower Austria to the eastern Mediterranean, on the Anatolian peninsula of Turkey, Corsica ...

''), Norway spruce (''

Picea abies ''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern Europe, Northern, Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, ...

'') and others, but they are under-represented.

References

Rhodope Mountains Resorts in Bulgaria {{Bulgaria-geo-stub