Somerset Rare Plants Group Visit to Vastergotland 1st to 8th July
Eight Members and friends of Somerset Rare Plants Group, which included several members of the WFS, accepted the invitation fromAnders Bertilsson to explore the botanical delights of Vastergotland earlier this year. Some of us had had the pleasure of meeting Anders and other Swedish botanists last summer when they visited England to spend a week botanising with Gill Read and lan Green. Three members of our group were already familiar with some of the Swedish flora, as they had participated in the Norrbotten Flora Project, but others had not visited Sweden before. Anders had very kindly set aside a whole week for us and had meticulously prepared a programme of site visits, covering a wide variety of habitats and species. We stayed at the local hostel in Falkoping and our party was just big enough to fill a minibus, which Anders drove to all the sites.
Some of the plants that we saw during the week were very familiar, but a large number of species that Anders showed us did not occur in Britain, were very rare, or were found only in the north of England or Scotland. On travelling from the airport to Falkoping we were interested in the tall stands of pink and purple-flowered Lupinus polyphyllus (garden lupin) naturalised on the edges of the main roads.
The limestone grassland sites such as Nolgarden Nas and Varholmen were very impressive, with their colourful masses of Geranium sanguineum (bloody cranesbill), Asperula tinctoria, Anthemis tinctoria (yellow chamomile), Campanula persicifolia (peach- leaved bellflower) and Trifolium montanum. Stipa is a grass genus that is absent as a native in Britain, so to see Stipa pennata in this species-rich habitat, with its long waving inflorescences was a great pleasure. I was interested to see that Convallaria majalis (lily-of-the-valley) and Polygonatum odoratum (angular Solomon's-seal) were both abundant in the open grassland here, as in Britain they are both usually woodland plants.
The farmstead at Skogastorp was a wonderful site, with the most beautiful flower- rich damp meadows that I had ever seen, full of sedges, orchids and a huge range of other wonderful plants. The rare and delicate Gymnadenia odoratissima was one of many orchid species here. Tea and biscuits were very welcome at the end of a very wet afternoon, in Per-Ame Arulf's red-painted wooden summer residence. We visited woodland where Cypripedium calceolus (lady's-slipper orchid) was abundant but unfortunately were too late to see it in flower. Large seed-heads were developing on most of the plants, but these were difficult to photograph in the dappled light.
We visited several wonderful examples of 'quaking bogs', where the water came perilously near the top of our Wellington boots. The Sphagnum tussocks had abundant Vaccinium oxycoccos (cranberry), V. uliginosum (bog bilberry), V vitis- idaea (cowberry) and Andromeda polifolia (bog-rosemary). Many of the sedges were completely new to me, like Carex pauciflora, C. brunnescens, C. canescens, C. limosaand C. chordorhiza (string sedge). I was fascinated to see Carex lasiocarpa (slender sedge) so abundant here, as it is a rare plant in southern Britain. This species is now confined to only two sites in Somerset, as the suitable habitats are drying out due to commercial peat extraction. SRPG held a field meeting at Street Heath (one of these sites) in 2001 to locate and record the last few remaining plants, where it hybridises with C. riparia (C x evoluta). Other common mire plants in Vastergotland such as Carex dioica (dioecious sedge), Carex diandra (lesser tussock-sedge), and Eriophorum latifolium (broad-leaved cottongrass) are also extremely rare in Somerset, now found only on one or two sites. The lowland mires in southern Britain are threatened habitats and many of the associated species are seriously endangered.
There were many highlights to our botanical excursions with Anders. We saw new sites and new plants every day. Each evening when we returned to our accommodation, we compiled the list of plants that we had seen and also chose our individual 'Favourite Plant of the Day'. At the end of our week in Falkoping, we each chose our 'Plant of the Week'. These were the following: Dracocephalum ruyschiana, Melampyrum arvense (field cow-wheat), Centaurea cyanus (cornflower), Primula farinosa (bird's-eye primrose), Trifolium montanum, Chimaphila umbellata, Arnica montana and Linnaea borealis (twinflower).
I shall not forget the wonderful quaking mires, the native pine forest with the huge mossy glaciated rocks, the vast wet open spaces of the Homborga Nature Reserve where we saw Sium latifolium (greater water-parsnip) and the small dull-red waves lapping on the sandy shore of Lake Vattem. I was interested to see Poa compressa (flattened meadow-grass) as the dominant grass in the limestone grassland, and to hear from Anders that the small glaucous Poa alpina was a relict from the last ice age. On our last day we were pleased to find the hybrid between Gymnadenia conopsea(fragrant orchid) and Dactylorhiza fuchsii (common spotted-orchid) at Varholmen, which we understand to be the first record for Vastergotland. But a very special treat was to see the amazing blue haze of thousands of Centaurea cyanus (cornflower) in the cornfields at Borgunda.
Our visit to Vastergotland was a very enjoyable botanical excursion. We were made to feel very welcome by all the Swedish botanists that we met during the week.
Our special thanks go to Anders Bertilsson for showing us such magnificent habitats and the huge variety of interesting and beautiful plants in the area that he knows so well.
LIZ MCDONNELL