Some plants I encounter in Norway.

[Hoy]

The common wood sorrel is very common! I like to taste it when I am out in the forest.




Close friends, a birch and a spruce.




Whorled Solomon's seal  finished for the season.




The knights plume moss




Usually coltsfoot is found on heavy clay soil, and not in the forests.

[Robert]

Trond,

These are some great photographs.  I especially enjoyed the photograph of the lake after the rain storm.    It is refreshing to see your lush countryside considering our current record breaking heat wave, wildfires, dense smoke, ash and generally bone dry conditions.

[Hoy]

Thank you Robert.

We have been lucky this summer. It has rained (snowed in the mountains!)  so the danger of wildfires have been close to zero. We never experience anything like you though. The ample rain also means that the vegetation is green everywhere, or almost everywhere!

[Hoy]

"Where is my boat?" - long forgotten and soon covered in Carex rostrata.




Lady's bedstraw is a nice plant.




The clones differ a little.




Spotted St John's-wort is a popular late bloomer.




The lichen Nephroma arcticum consists of a fungus, an green algae (coccomyxa) and a cyanobacteria.

[cohan]

Which Galium is that? G boreale is pretty showy here, in white masses, but of course yellow seems flashier-- not that we have a shortage of yellow flowers..

Is the coltsfoot Tussilago? I considered planting it, but it seems there are concerns about invasiveness..
Lots of fungi here, but no red fly agaric or any mushrooms quite so bright. Because of the wet summer, there were more mushrooms all season.

[Yann]

Some dandelions and a wintergreen.

These are 3 different dandelion species.

Dandelions can be a nightmare to identify, i own a 160 pages ID key..i often scratch my head

[Hoy]

Which Galium is that? G boreale is pretty showy here, in white masses, but of course yellow seems flashier-- not that we have a shortage of yellow flowers..

Is the coltsfoot Tussilago? I considered planting it, but it seems there are concerns about invasiveness..
Lots of fungi here, but no red fly agaric or any mushrooms quite so bright. Because of the wet summer, there were more mushrooms all season.

The yellow one is Galium verum. I like it! But I do like the other Galiums also. G. boreale is common here (photograph). G. album is similar but bigger.





Yes, the coltsfoot is Tussilago farfara. It can be a nuisance ob heavy soil, especially in disturbed areas. I was a little astonished to find it here in the middle of the forest.

[Hoy]

Dandelions can be a nightmare to identify, i own a 160 pages ID key..i often scratch my head

I am satisfied if I can identify the group which it belongs to!

[cohan]

The yellow one is Galium verum. I like it! But I do like the other Galiums also. G. boreale is common here (photograph). G. album is similar but bigger.

The only other ones we have are triflorum, which is actually a very attractive foliage plant-- another of those odd natives which grow in a particular niche in nature ( shady and moist or at least mesic) but will grow in nearly any condition in the garden== it has popped up in some fairly dry exposed places in rock gardens! And some tiny species I forget the name of, in wetland areas.

[Hoy]

The only other ones we have are triflorum, which is actually a very attractive foliage plant-- another of those odd natives which grow in a particular niche in nature ( shady and moist or at least mesic) but will grow in nearly any condition in the garden== it has popped up in some fairly dry exposed places in rock gardens! And some tiny species I forget the name of, in wetland areas.

triflorum occurs here also but I rarely notice it.

[cohan]

triflorum occurs here also but I rarely notice it.

It is most striking and attractive when it grows in fairly bare patches of forest floor, over mosses, and grows prostrate, stems radiating out from the centre, very nice foliage plant. Would probably make a good hanging basket subject!

[Hoy]

It is most striking and attractive when it grows in fairly bare patches of forest floor, over mosses, and grows prostrate, stems radiating out from the centre, very nice foliage plant. Would probably make a good hanging basket subject!

Have to look out for it I presume!

[Hoy]

Although mid September it is still a mild but rainy kind of weather. Nothing uncommon though.

Here is a few plants seen last Saturday (Sept.19)

Saxifraga aizoides. Usually it is growing in the mountains but on the island of Bømlo it grows close to the sea in an old limestone quarry.




The common heather (Calluna vulgaris) is finished some weeks ago but the bell heather (Erica cinerea) is still in full bloom.




Euphrasia stricta, native and very common here.




The fern Asplenium trichomanes is native but Cotoneaster horizontalis is not. It has spread a lot from gardens though.




Bindweed (Calystegium sepium) is a common seashore plant but it has spread to gardens and parks and other places you don't want it! Here it is climbing a native wild rose (Rosa villosa ssp mollis probably).

[Hoy]

Saturday Sept. 19. a group of us were out looking for Cotoneasters. We have 2 native species in Norway and maybe more than 20 foreign ones, nobody knows exactly how many and which species. We found about 8 different ones on our little excursion, one native.

The native Cotoneaster scandinavicus (integerrimus).




Some of us on the road with a hedge of English ivy (which is native also). The brown honeybees (Apis mellifera mellifera) were also very interested.




One of the Cotoneasters we found - a lot of! We think it is C. symondsii.




C. symondsii?




This is not a Cotoneaster but a very unwanted invasive plant from S Africa, the South African ragwort (Senecio inaequidens).

[Hoy]

The brown honeybee on English ivy.