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Kobilje (Municipality, Slovenia)

Municipal flag of Kobilje, horizontal and vertical versions - Images by Željko Heimer, 10 June 2004

Presentation of Kobilje
Municipal flag of Kobilje
Coat of arms of Kobilje

See also:

Presentation of Kobilje

Kobilje is a municipality in eastern end of Slovenia, on the border with Hungary.

Željko Heimer, 20 May 2004

Municipal flag of Kobilje

The flag and arms of Kobilje are prescribed by Decision Odlok o uporabi grba in zastave Občine Kobilje, adopted on 30 March 2004 and published in the official Slovene gazette Uradni list Republike Slovenije, 44/2004, 28 April 2004. A set of sheets, Geometrijska, likovna ter barvna pravila za oblikovanje grba in zastave, priloga, Občina Kobilje, probably an appendix to the decision, shows the graphical details of the symbols.

The flag is simply a banner of the municipal arms, in proportion 1:3. The flag does not have the ornamental white outline the shield has.
The colours are defined as green Pantone 354 (CMYK 91-0-83-0) and blue Pantone Reflex Blue (CMYK 100-72-0-6).

Željko Heimer, 10 June 2004

Coat of arms of Kobilje

Coat of arms of Kobilje - Image by Željko Heimer, 10 June 2004

The coat of arms of Kobilje is:

Azure a widlsovice (checkertree) leaf vert fimbriated argent.

Kobilje is known as the place where two rare species of trees grow, named in Slovene skorl and brek. I believe that it is the leaf of brek that is shown on the municipal coat of arms. This tree is Sorbus torminalis, and it is said to be the oldest and biggest fruit tree of its kind in Slovenia and neighbouring countries. The skorl is Sorbus domestica.

Željko Heimer, 10 June 2004

The taxonomy of genus Sorbus is a bit fishy due to hybridization (see below). The sorbs or service trees are divided in alisiers (I must use the French name since my English dictionary gives the same translation for all Sorbus), sometimes placed into genus Aria and sorbiers sensu stricto. The alisiers have simple leaves, with lobes or teeth, whereas the sorbiers have leaves composed of 11-17 distinct leaflets. Moreover, the alisiers have two styles whereas the sorbiers have three to five styles.

Sorbus torminalis (skorl) is the alisier torminal. torminalis means in medical Latin 'good against diarrhoea'.
Sorbus domestica (brek) is a sorbier known as cormier, and is often a cultivated tree, mostly in the Mediterranean regions. Its fruit (corme) is edible and its very hard wood was used in the past to make tool handles.
There is also a Sorbus aucuparia, sorbier des oiseleurs (bird-catchers' sorb). The red berries of the tree were used in the past to attract and catch birds.

Like most trees of the Rosaceae family, the different species of Sorbus are prone to hybridization. An hybrid between a Sorbus and a pear tree was even reported in the Alsatian village of Bollwiller in 1599, and called Sorbopirus. The great botanist Linnaeus, who hardly walked out of his glasshouses, erroneously named the hybrid Pollverria, which was later corrected by de Candolle into Bollwylleriana, later modernized into Bollwilleriana.
For the same hybridation reason, the emblematic tree of the forest of Fontainebleau (France), Sorbus latifolia (alisier de Fontainebleau), which was believed to be endemic (that is, only present there), is now suspected to be an hybrid also present in other parts of Europe.

Sources:

P. Fournier. Les quatre flores de France (Lechevalier, Paris, 1936)
C.J. Humphries et al. Le multiguide nature de tous les arbres d'Europe (Bordas, Paris, 1984)

Ivan Sache, 20 May 2004