Notes from Norway

[Robert]

Trond,

The Cottongrass, Eriophorum vaginatum, looks somewhat similar to one of our native rushes, Juncus chlorocephalus. I am giving this Juncus species a try in the garden, as I enjoy its white coloured flowering heads. If it blooms nice down here at the lower elevations and stays clumping it will be a keeper.

How is for the Cottongrass? Sometimes grasses can turn out to be weedy! - caution required. One has only to look at the weedy, invasive grasses that have taken over California.

[Hoy]

....the phyllodeuce looks great......
cheers
chris

It is a fine plant, Chris, I always take a second look when I find one

[Hoy]

Robert,

We like to get above the trees when we are out and have the possibility. Our cabin sits in the subalpine zone but from old the area has been grazed and the 'cowboys' have picked firewood so the landscape was fairly open until 50 years ago. Now the spruce and birch woods creep into the meadows

Viola biflora is very nice! I am always happy when I find some in flower. It is common higher up, like where we went today, but very rare around our cabin. Just around our cabin we have a population of another violet, Viola rupestris, which I like very much but it is very early and finished now.

Viola rupestris


I like non-blooming plants. Some are very interesting

The cottongras needs it very wet, and it seems to prefer poor, peaty soil so I doubt it will spread at your site
I like Eriophorum scheuchzeri better than vagans because it is shorter and have bigger heads. Neither clump but spread slowly by underground rhizomes.

Eriophorum scheuchzeri

[Robert]

Trond,

I see what you mean. Eriophorum scheuchzeri seems to make much more of an impression.

As for the Violets, I find both Viola biflora and V. rupestris to be quite charming. I am not sure what they would do with our heat, however it would be interesting to give them try at some point. I have some degree a success with Viola adunca, an evergreen, high elevation species here in the Sierra Nevada. The low elevation forms of Viola glabella are fairly easy to grow. I have some seedlings of this species from higher elevations coming on, so I will see how they do lower down the mountain. I am hoping for flowers next spring on these high elevation forms.

[Hoy]

Yesterday the weather forecast was good - that is no rain, and more and more sun as the day went on. We decided to go to a mountain area called Hallingskarvet. It is a 35km (21 miles) long ridge or a plateau. The highest point is 1933m (6341ft). We didn't want to ascend to the top. The plateau is covered by rocks, we call it 'et blokkhav' - ocean of rocks - and this year still snowcovered. It takes us little more than an hour to drive from the cabin and to the foot of the massif, here is a little town called Geilo.

Hallingskarvet seen from the south east side.





We walked along this low ridge in the foreground (2. picture) to the foot of the cliffs and followed them westward. We started at about 1200m and went up to about 1500m at the highest. All my pictures this day was bad! I found out later that I had touched a button which I shouldn't have done! All the pictures were wrongly exposed. (My eyesight isn't what it was and it is difficult to read the screen in bright light.) In addition it was strong wind

The first plant that caught our attention was Pedicularis oederi. It is very abundant here on wet calcareous soil.




The second was also yellow, Viola biflora. Here it grows in tens of thousand.




A nice Salix myrsinites. It has red catkins and shiny green leaves.

[Hoy]

Low clouds come and went while we walked. It was rather chilly at times!

Vaccinium uliginosum caught diamonds of water and here the flowers were reddish.






Another common plant here is Dryas octopetala. It prefers calcareous soil. It grows along the ridge but the flowers there were damaged by frost or something.






Silene acaulis is also everywhere here.

[Hoy]

The ridge - on the left (southwest and sunny side) it is very exposed and on the right side-  leeward - the snow accumulates. Here we had our lunch by the snow, warm and quiet while it still blew on the other side.






Rhodiola rosea grows up here and down at the coast, at the shore. Male and female plants.






Salix herbacea

[Hoy]

It is very rocky along the escarpment. Loose stones fall from the steep wall every spring when the frozen ground thaws, most are small though.






Millennia ago reindeer hunters built this trap to catch animals. They made guiding fences of stone which led the animals to the trap. Spears at the bottom killed the animal. You will find similar traps in many of the mountains here.




Oxyria digyna grows among the rocks. It tastes good and I usually browse a little




Also Silene suecica (Lychnis alpina) grows here.

[Hoy]

These pictures turned out very badly, I managed to save a few though


Loiseleuria decumbens Loiseleuria procumbens    forms large patches here.








Cassiope hypnoides is also here.

[Hoy]

This is a much visited area and the main paths have to take heavy use. Sherpas from Nepal have worked in Norway several summers to build steps and bridges etc in the mountains, a work they are used to and very good at. They get ordinary salary and earn more here than they would at home. This helps their country, especially after the earthquakes.

http://www.nrk.no/buskerud/sherpaer-pa-hallingskarvet-1.11167567

http://www.nrk.no/verden/jobber-i-norge-for-a-gjenreise-nepal-1.12362445


The climb from the foot of the escarpment and to the top is very steep. The path was very difficult before the Sherpas built the steps.




Farther down they led the small watercourses between stepping stones.

[Maggi Young]

We walked along this low ridge in the foreground (2. picture) to the foot of the cliffs and followed them westward. We started at about 1200m and went up to about 1500m at the highest. All my pictures this day was bad! I found out later that I had touched a button which I shouldn't have done! All the pictures were wrongly exposed. (My eyesight isn't what it was and it is difficult to read the screen in bright light.) In addition it was strong wind

I thought the first two photos  of the scene were wonderfully atmospheric  so I was astonished to read you say that, Trond.

The "creeping Azalea" is  Loiseleuria procumbens  rather than   Loiseleuria decumbens  so I made an edit for you. 


Those Sherpas make a very good job, don't they? Most impresssive work. 

[Robert]

Trond,

What an impressive landscape. It is like nothing I have ever seen before. Your home country is so very beautiful and there are certainly many beautiful plants.

It must rain often during the summer and always be cool in this area? There is nothing like this in California, even on the highest peak.

I agree the Sherpas do excellent work.

[Hoy]

I thought the first two photos  of the scene were wonderfully atmospheric  so I was astonished to read you say that, Trond.

The "creeping Azalea" is  Loiseleuria procumbens  rather than   Loiseleuria decumbens  so I made an edit for you. 


Those Sherpas make a very good job, don't they? Most impresssive work. 

Maggi,

Fortunately some of the pictures turned out to be better than they looked at first but I had to do some work on them . . . 

Thanks for the editing   It seems I can't trust my memory anymore 

Yes, those Sherpas do the most impressive work for sure   And very fast too.

[Hoy]

Trond,

What an impressive landscape. It is like nothing I have ever seen before. Your home country is so very beautiful and there are certainly many beautiful plants.

It must rain often during the summer and always be cool in this area? There is nothing like this in California, even on the highest peak.

I agree the Sherpas do excellent work.

Robert,

That's one reason why I am fascinated by your landscape. It is so different from here

It rains often by your standard but this is in fact a rather dry area. I haven't shown pictures from the dry pine forest around here yet. The precipitation here is between 500 and 700 mm/year (20-28 inches/year). Most of it in summer though but in winter (Nov - Apr) most fall as snow.

And this is also a warm area by Norwegian standards, the record is 35C but that is down in the valleys. It is much cooler up in the mountains of course. The average precipitation in June, July and August is about 2 inches each month. The average temperature during these months is about 14C in the valleys.

[Robert]

Trond,

14 C as an average temperature during the summer is, of coarse, very cold compared to our average summer temperatures. More like winter here. Often the Sierra Nevada gets little or no rainfall during the summer months. It has been very different this summer with all the monsoonal moisture. The higher elevations of the Sierra have remained fairly moist due to the extra thunderstorm activity this season.

I am still very fascinated by my native California.    Even more so with your native home, Norway.    I think that one reason I try to write as much as I can about my outings is that it helps present a more complete image. I only scratch the surface with each posting. I guess that this is good. For me there is never a dull moment, even for the places I have been visiting for the past 55 years.

Midnight, can not sleep, however I think that I will go back to bed anyway.