What a perfect present….an evening with Anders Often, one of Norway’s leading botanists and a lovely person too! Thank you Randy Gunnar Lange and Ingunn Bohmann. I’d never met him before, but had emailed with him about old relic locations of Hablitzia some years back.
We walked from Eikeløkka through an amazing varied landscape, in places extremely poor with twisted pine trees and ground covering spruce, in others rich where marine sediments had been deposited, to the highest point on Kirkøy, Hvaler (Botneveten) at just over 70m from where there were amazing views showing a forest covered island and with spectacular panoramic views towards the Koster Islands (where I’ve been a couple of times: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=4225), Strømstad, Svinesund and Torbjørnskjær (where we had a buoy measuring marine environmental parameters in the 90s!)
Anders showing us a pincushion moss (blåmose)
Pincushion moss (blåmose)
Spruce trees had a very special form in places hugging the ground under a pine tree!
The pine trees seemed to be growing on almost nothing and were much older than one would think…
Anders counting annual rings on one small tree…it was around 20 years old!
Anders called these special pines “knausfuru” and told us they could be very old
One of 3 information boards on the top
A tumulus (gravrøys) from the iron or bronse age on top (they were placed with a good view during that period)
View towards Svinesund bridge (the boundary with Sweden)
Another ground hugging spruce under a pine
Anders told us here of the difference between the native and cultivated forms of spruce. The latter more often have several tops and irregular growth…this one had probably been damaged as a small tree…and a kink in the trunk can also be seen high up on the right
This was a hybrid oak
One branch of this rose was sprouting from the warnth of the rock
Cirsium palustre
What made this perfectly round hole in the ground?
We didn’t see any, but woodlark (trelerke) breed here!
One small patch of ostrich fern
Anders explained that this was an old beach, where waves crashed at one time
Fantastic spring weather for the first day of our weekend permaveggies course arranged by Hvaler Hagelag on the Hvaler islands in southern Norway. Great group of old and new friends. The local NRK Østfold TV were also there and interviewed us! The day started with a guided tour of Randy Gunnar Lange and Ingunn Bohmann‘s new home and extensive grounds (Eikeløkka) where we discussed their plans of developing the land to a multispecies biodiverse permaculture farm with forest garden including nut trees, fruit, perennial vegetables, carp pond, beneficial animals etc.
Randy’s plan is to beat my species count :) Good luck!!
I look forward to following Ingunn and Randy’s labours over the next years…
This was followed by a talk about perennials and their role in a more resilient future!
Mariann Bekkevold Hovda of Hvaler Hagelag
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
