Botanising in Malvik, central lowland Norway

[Stephenb]

This weekend I escaped from the garden and joined a small group of amateur and professional botanists carrying out a botanical mapping survey of our kommune (municipality), Malvik (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malvik). The method being used is to register all higher plants (e.g., not mosses, lichens and fungi) found in 1x1 km square areas, of which there are over 200 in Malvik.  The kommune is mostly relatively low level reaching just over 500m at the highest point, just above the tree line. The forest is mostly Pine (Pinus sylvestris) and Spruce (Picea abies). There are numerous small lakes and bogs, the latter harbouring the highest diversity. These weekends are always very rewarding and I come away realizing how little I know about the local flora (hopefully I’ll retain some of the information to next year – posting this on the web will help, I hope!). Although it’s now way past the main flowering season, there is nevertheless a lot to see. Therefore, I thought I’d share with you some of the photos I took at the weekend. Being out in the field all weekend, there inevitably turns up some interesting insects and I’ll post a few of these here:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3720.msg104173#msg104173  
As far as birds are concerned, it was pretty quiet, the highlight being a couple of Cranes (Grus grus) which flew over while we were eating lunch on the Saturday.

Here’s the first batch of photos. It’s berry picking season, but there wasn’t much time for more than a nibble:

1) Rubus saxatilis (Stone Bramble)
2) Vaccinium myrtillus (Bilberry) is the most common “blueberry” here.
3) Vaccinium uliginosum (Bog Bilberry) is picked alongside common bilberry.
4) Cloudberries (Rubus chamaemorus) are worshipped here in Norway and for most Norwegians an essential part of Xmas celebrations. An acquired taste – I’ve grown fonder of them the longer I’ve lived in Norway….
5) Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca) – I’ve found several garden worthy plants on these weekends such as the variegated Valerian that I found last year (see http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3909.0).  This long-berried form of wild strawberry is now in my garden!
6) Cornus suecica (Dwarf Cornel) – I refuse to use its “new” name Chamaeperyclimenum suecica – I can’t even pronounce it….  Although edible, it has a bland taste, but can be mixed with other berries, being rich in pectin.
7) Oxycoccus palustris (Stor tranebær in Norwegian, translates as Large Craneberry, but nowhere near as large as the North American Cranberry). We also saw Oxycoccus microcarpus (Small Craneberry) which is separated at this stage by its hairless flower stalk, or was it the other way round?

[Ragged Robin]

What a great project to be part of Stephen - thanks for posting your photos of findings - here the Vaccinium myrtillus is prevalent in the forest and I have had the first delicious pickings (a local woman makes fantastic wild berry jams)  Also great to see Cloudberries - we ate these as youngsters on fishing holidays in Norway and I quite liked them!

[mark smyth]

Stephen your Cloudberry looks like the Salmonberry Rubus spectabilis  that grows in some old gardens over here

[Stephenb]

Stephen your Cloudberry looks like the Salmonberry Rubus spectabilis  that grows in some old gardens over here

Had never really thought about  that (I have spectabilis in my garden) as they are such radically different plants, the cloudberry a ground hugger and the salmonberry like a raspberry, but yes they do look similar. The taste is very different though.

[Brian Ellis]

Stephen it brings back memories of delicious Cloudberry Jam brought back from a cruise up to the North Cape!

[cohan]

This weekend I escaped from the garden and joined a small group of amateur and professional botanists carrying out a botanical mapping survey of our kommune (municipality), Malvik (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malvik). The method being used is to register all higher plants (e.g., not mosses, lichens and fungi) found in 1x1 km square areas, of which there are over 200 in Malvik.  The kommune is mostly relatively low level reaching just over 500m at the highest point, just above the tree line. The forest is mostly Pine (Pinus sylvestris) and Spruce (Picea abies). There are numerous small lakes and bogs, the latter harbouring the highest diversity. These weekends are always very rewarding and I come away realizing how little I know about the local flora (hopefully I’ll retain some of the information to next year – posting this on the web will help, I hope!). Although it’s now way past the main flowering season, there is nevertheless a lot to see. Therefore, I thought I’d share with you some of the photos I took at the weekend. Being out in the field all weekend, there inevitably turns up some interesting insects and I’ll post a few of these here:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3720.msg104173#msg104173  
As far as birds are concerned, it was pretty quiet, the highlight being a couple of Cranes (Grus grus) which flew over while we were eating lunch on the Saturday.

Here’s the first batch of photos. It’s berry picking season, but there wasn’t much time for more than a nibble:

1) Rubus saxatilis (Stone Bramble)
2) Vaccinium myrtillus (Bilberry) is the most common “blueberry” here.
3) Vaccinium uliginosum (Bog Bilberry) is picked alongside common bilberry.
4) Cloudberries (Rubus chamaemorus) is worshipped here in Norway and for most Norwegians an essential part of Xmas celebrations. An acquired taste – I’ve grown fonder of it the longer I’ve lived in Norway….
5) Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca) – I’ve found several garden worthy plants on these weekends such as the variegated Valerian that I found last year (see http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3909.0).  This long-berried form of wild strawberry is now in my garden!
6) Cornus suecica (Dwarf Cornel) – I refuse to use its “new” name Chamaeperyclimenum suecica – I can’t even pronounce it….  Although edible, it has a bland taste, but can be mixed with other berries, being rich in pectin.
7) Oxycoccus palustris (Stor tranebær in Norwegian, translates as Large Craneberry, but nowhere near as large as the North American Cranberry). We also saw Oxycoccus microcarpus (Small Craneberry) which is separated at this stage by its hairless flower stalk, or was it the other way round?

great project! i'd love to see something similar in my area! till then i just carry on alone in a far less comprehensive manner

[Stephenb]

Stephen it brings back memories of delicious Cloudberry Jam brought back from a cruise up to the North Cape!

Next time - give me a shout. My office overlooks the coastal steamer and cruise ships in Trondheim...

[Stephenb]

Next batch of plants found in boggy areas:

1. A typical view of a lake with Pine trees
2-3. We have two common sundews - first Drosera longifolia, the long-leaved sundew
4. Drosera rotundifolia, the round-leaved sundew
5-6. I learned (again) several of the cotton grasses,  here Eriophorum latifolium, the broad-leaved bog cotton
7. Eriophorum angustifolium, tall cotton grass, also widespread in North America and used as survival food (roots and stem bases), medicine and for its fiber by native americans.
8. Trichophorum alpinum, the Alpine cotton-grass or Alpine bulrush in North America. We also saw a couple of other species too.
9. View of a cabin garden

[Ragged Robin]

What a great setting by the lake Stephen - Both of the Drosera are really lovely with the dew drops on them - you can see where they got their name from!

[cohan]

some similarities to some of the landscapes around here...we do have the cotton grasses, along with many other kinds of sedges and rushes around here...
the drosera are really nice, they are in alberta somewhere too, but i have never seen them in person here..

[Stephenb]

Some more plants of damp environments:

1.  Along with the sundews, we found another flesh eater, an Utricularia spp (bladderwort)
2-3. Bog Asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum) is near the eastern edge of its range with us.
4.  Potamogeton natans (Broad-leaved pondweed)
5. Saussurea alpina (Alpine saw-wort) is quite common; make sure you have a sniff too as it has a pleasant vanilla-like aroma…
6. Cirsium heterophyllum (Melancholy Thistle), source of the Melancholy Artichoke, renowned bog food – very labour intensive to prepare a decent serving (definitely makes one melancholy..), probably would command a price alongside truffles with a bit of marketing…
7.  Grass of Parnassus, also known as Bog-Stars (or Stars of the Bog) or Parnassia palustris is found in richer, less acid, bogs. I’ve always wondered how it got its name? Is there perhaps a different species of Parnassia on Mt. Parnassos in Greece?
8. We found the hybrid birch Betula nana x pubescens on the edge of one bog, but despite searching we didn’t see the Dwarf Birch, Betula nana itself (commoner at higher elevations).

[Stephenb]

Stephen your Cloudberry looks like the Salmonberry Rubus spectabilis  that grows in some old gardens over here

Incidentally, I read yesterday that Cloudberries have crossed spontaneously and artificially with raspberries, Rubus idaeus (see http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/CropFactSheets/cloud_berry.html) but the resultant plants have been sterile.... You could imagine the salmonberry being the result of such a cross.

I also have the cultivar "Olympic Double" - is it that one or the species that you find in old gardens over there? They're a bit invasive, so they will persist in a garden when neglected.

[Stephenb]

some similarities to some of the landscapes around here...we do have the cotton grasses, along with many other kinds of sedges and rushes around here...
the drosera are really nice, they are in alberta somewhere too, but i have never seen them in person here..

A lot of the plants I'm showing are circumpolar, so I'm sure you have some of the same species or close relations.

[Stephenb]

Inspired by Rafa's seed collecting in another thread, here's another cloudberry look-alike from my garden (well, the colour is similar) what I call the Apricot-Raspberry (my own selection), together with the strangely little grown Black Raspberry (Rubus occidentalis) and a common but tasty red raspberry which I found in the neglected old railway station garden here):

[Ragged Robin]

Oooo they look delicious