The studied recreation centres: „Park Miejski Knurów”, „Park Szczygłowice” near Knurów and „Czerwionka – Dębieńsko Las” are situated in Upper Silesia, within Upper Silesian Industrial Area in southern Poland (Fig. 1 and 2). Many areas in this region were infl uenced mainly by mining and metallurgical industries. In many places it led to a serious deterioration of the condition of the flora and its habitat.

Material and Methods:
Bibliographical studies and local vegetation research that have been carried out in the vegetation season 2008–2009 in the area of the three recreation resorts, allowed a detailed ecological analysis of the fl ora and evaluation of the natural resources of vascular plants, including medicinal plants. An alphabetical list of species of the vascular fl ora was carried out, with regard to the resorts mentioned. A detailed statistical analysis contains important features related to: 1 – the use of the species in a given category of health care and homeopathy, 2 – the possibility of acquiring a given kind of medicinal raw material, 3 – the diversity of species as regards pharmacological influence, 4 – the diversity of fl ora as regards biologically active content of endogenic chemical substances, including medicinal agents, 5 – a group of other functional features included in an inventory of plant species. The gained results have been presented in histograms (Fig. 3–10).

Results:
As a result of the research we have confi rmed the existence of 373 species of vascular plants (=100%), where 308 species are medicinal plants and 123 species (33%) are used in homeopathy. There are 6 species protected by the law. 2 of them are fully protected and 4 species are partially protected.

Conclusions:
The studied recreation areas are characterized by a considerably high degree of species diversity. Such factors as the infl uence of environmental conditions on the plant raw material have to be considered and therefore, the material cannot be used for pharmaceutical purposes. Nevertheless, thanks to its vegetation diversity, the examined area is a natural gene bank for medicinal plants. Abundant populations of many of them can provide seeds for their cultivation outside the area of intensive industrial contamination.