The Valley of Narcissi, located in Kireshi Village in only few kilometres from Khust, is the only place in Ukraine, where the narrow-leaved narcissus - Narcissus Angustifolius aka Narcissus poeticus - is blooming in natural environment.
And it’s the biggest natural seat of Narcissus poeticus in Europe, it covers the area of 257 hectares. There are similar, but smaller Narcissi fields in the Alps and the Balkans and in Romania, but only here in Khust these flowers grow at the amazing height almost 1,000 metres lower than elsewhere in Europe. Highlands are considered its natural environment, not valleys with their warmer climate. Researchers claim that the Narcissus appeared here back in the Ice Age, when mud poured into the valley from the surrounding mountains and brought the roots of the mountainous ecosystem.
The Valley of Narcissi is protected by the government and makes part of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve, which in 1992 was included into the international network of Biosphere Reserves by UNESCO.
