Field Trips - Southern Sweden
Southern Sweden, August 16 - 18
20-25 participants (if less than 17 the tour will be cancelled)
Price: DKK 4,500 depending on number of participants. Alcoholic beverages not included
Tour guides: Johan Rova and Eva Wallander
Practical information: Lodging in double rooms (only a few single rooms available).
Vegetarians cannot relay on availability of food.
Bring warm clothes and rain clothes. Wellingtons are required at several localities, as well as insect repellent. Most localities can only be
visited by normal fit persons. If you wish to collect material on the tour, please contact one of the tour leaders.
Tour guides: Johan Rova and Eva Wallander, Jönköping County Administrative Board, Sweden
During the excursion, we will visit coastal meadows, boreal coniferous forests, bogs, fens, mafic cliffs, and dry steppe. We will also visit
Råshult, where Carl Linneaus was born, and enjoy both Swedish architecture and the traditional Swedish kitchen.
The tour starts at the Central Railway Station in Malmö on Saturday, August 16, at 8 AM. Our first stop is Höka, a coastal nature reserve with
sand dunes and a sea shore salt meadow at the Lagan River estuary in the province of Halland. In the area it is possible to see species such as
Radiola linoides, Lythrum portula, Tillaea aquatica, and Triglochin maritima.
After a few hours by bus, we arrive at Store Mosse
National Park where we have lunch in the Visitors' Centre, which architecture has been nominated the 2008 award for wooden buildings. After lunch,
we go for a 7 km walk across the active raised bog, which is part of the largest wetland area in southern Sweden. For best convenience, bring
your wellingtons and insect repellant! Along the trail, we see several species of Sphagnum, as well as Carex, Drosera, and the
monotypic Scheuchzeria palustris. At 7 PM, we check in at Toftaholm Herrgård, a gastronomic stronghold dating back to the 14th century,
where we are served a regionally inspired dinner.
Day two, we leave Toftaholm at 8 AM and head for the Southern part of Store Mosse National Park, where we visit the Björnekulla alcaline fen, rich
in several species of Cyperaceae (Carex, Trichophorum), and orchids such as Epipactis palustris and Gymnadenia conopsea. Next
stop is Marieholmsskogen Nature Reserve, a western taiga Picea forest that was severely influenced by storm and bark beetles in 2005. This is a
locality for Goodyera repens. Also Lobelia dortmanna grows in an oligtrophic lake in the reserve. A late lunch is served at the top of
Mount Taberg, a peculiar mafic mountain formation consisting of the very rare rock titanic magnetite olivinite, and habitat for the likewise very rare
fern Asplenium adulterinum. After lunch, we travel northward to the xeric and calcareous grasslands of the Västra Götaland Region, where we see
steppe species such as Stipa pennata and Dracocephalum ruyschiana. After leaving the dry steppe, we visit a calcareous fen at the Sjöängen
Nature Reseve, where we encounter Schoenus ferrugineus, Saxifraga hirculus, Parnassia palustris, Epipactis palustris (once more), and several
Carex spp. If time permits, we will make a short stop at the top of mount Ålleberg, before we arrive at 7.30 PM at Wrågården, where we are served
dinner made from local specialities. The bus takes us back to Toftaholm, where we arrive late, at 11 PM.
The third day, Monday August 18, we check out from Toftaholm Herrgård and leave at 8.30 AM. Our first stop is Årån Nature Reserve, where we search for
Paris quadrifolia and Polygonatum multiflorum in the wet riverside forests. At 11 AM we arrive at Råshult, where Carl Linneaus was born.
A local guide guides us through the carefully restored species-rich grasslands and wooded meadows where Linnaeus made some of his first botanical observations.
Lunch (18th century inspired) is served at the nearby Möckelnsnäs herrgård, famous for its garden and its Orangery, constructed from Linnaeus sketches. On
our way back to Malmö, we make a few short stops in the province of Skåne (Scania) to see Butomus umbellatus, Anthericum ramosum, Festuca polesica,
and Koelerica glauca. A final stop at the Lyngsjö Lake will be possible if we manage to be on schedule, offering a calcareous fen rich in Cyperaceae
(Schoenoplectus, Blysmus, Eriophorum, Eleocaris, Carex), as well as the orchids Listera ovata and Herminium monorchis (not easy to spot,
though!). At 8 PM, latest, we are back at Malmö Central Station, where the excursion ends.
