Deciduous meadow

Forest meadows (wooded meadows, after the region of its main deposit as Baltic forest meadows called) created by versatile and intensive use and promoting resource of forests in the settlement near space. Under the light shade of old trees there is a second, loose tree layer and an equally extensive shrub layer . In contrast to the conditions in real forests, the herb layer is dense and there is no litter.

distribution

Deciduous meadows are spread over southern Sweden , the Åland Islands and southern Finland as well as Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania . Its northern limit is roughly marked by the northern area limit of the common ash ( Fraxinus excelsior ).

species

In the ground vegetation one finds:

Trembling grass ( Briza media )
Real sheep fescue ( Festuca ovina )
Yellow lady's slipper ( Cypripedium calceolus )
Brixenwort ( Dactylorhiza fuchsii )
Elder orchid ( Dactylorhiza sambucina )
Handsome orchis ( Orchis mascula )

Large two-leaf ( Listera ovata )

Blood-red cranesbill ( Geranium sanguineum )

Sun rose ( Helianthemum nummularium )

Marsh finial ( Polygala amarella )

Common cowslip ( Primula veris )

Flour primrose ( Primula farinosa )
Small rattlespot ( Rhinanthus minor )
Large rattle pot ( R. serotinus )
Devil bite ( Succisa pratensis )
Färbererscharte ( Serratula tinctoria )
Blue grass ( Sesleria coerulea )
Lesser meadowsweet ( Filipendula hexapetala )
Red fescue ( Festuca rubra )
Blue-green sedge ( Carex flacca )
Meadow knapweed ( Centaurea jacea )
Stalkless thistle ( Cirsium acaule ).

The tree layers are formed from:

Common ash ( Fraxinus excelsior )
Birch ( Betula pendula )
English oak ( Quercus robur )
Winter linden ( Tilia cordata )
Mountain elm ( Ulmus glabra )
Swedish rowanberry ( Sorbus intermedia )

In the shrub layer , common hazel ( Corylus avellana ) dominates alongside the young plants of the tree species mentioned.

In addition to the usage regime, the vegetation of the deciduous meadows is of course also influenced by the location conditions. Lime-rich forms differ significantly from more acidic ones.

Forms of use

In order to preserve the values of this ancient meadow form, it is very important to use the characteristic features and structures in a traditional way.

Rake

In spring (end of April until May), the meadow is raked to give the freshly sprouting grass air. A rotting layer of leaves as a mulch cover would drastically reduce the hay yield. At the same time Abharken causes Aushagerung . Weakly competitive species can establish themselves. Parts of the meadow that are still under water in spring are raked after they have fallen dry. Old leaves, twigs and branches are burned in small piles in less productive areas of the meadow. Traditionally, these piles are also packed on old tree stumps and burned there or near bushes where the grass cover is sparse. If there is a lot of leaves, these fire pits are only a few meters apart. Large fires were usually not started. On Gotland , rakes were used with a handle made of pine and the tine-bearing part made of ash. It was attached to the handle with two or three arches made of mountain ash or cornel cherry wood . The prongs were made of cornel, ash or lilac wood. Each family painted their rakes with certain color combinations to distinguish them. In the growth phase from raking to mowing, the meadow is no longer entered and under no circumstances is grazed. It is extremely important to avoid stepping on the meadow vegetation during this time.

Mowing

The best time for haymowing on mineral soil sites is in the second half of July, when the biomass is at its greatest. An old Gotlandic farmer's rule says that the best time to mow is when the seeds of the rattling pot (a grass parasitic species of the Scrophulariaceae) rattle. After mowing, the grass dries for a few days and is turned daily. Later it is raked into small piles to dry completely. Hay from shady areas is carried into more open areas of the meadow. No heur residues may remain on the area. They would also rot and smother the grassy vegetation. The late mowing date promotes plant species that bloom relatively late and are dependent on reproduction via seeds. These fall out during drying and hay-turning and thus make a decisive contribution to the reproduction of the vegetation. Originally scythes were used. Today tractors with cutter bars are used. With the scythe, only areas inaccessible to tractors are mowed. Knife mowers cut evenly and smoothly. Low-growing species are usually spared, except for the flower shoots, and will start to sprout again after a short time. High-speed rotary and flail mowers tear off the plant parts rather than cut them. Low-growing, less regenerative species are more affected by these devices than when mowing with cutter bars.

Snowing

As Schneiteln harvesting Laubheu is called. Historically, the trees were pruned at intervals of three to six years and the leafy branches were dried for winter fodder. Trees that have not been pruned for a long time threaten to break apart. From a landscape conservation perspective, intervals of four to nine years now range. The sections should not be longer, otherwise the branches will become too big and the correspondingly large cuts will heal poorly. In addition, the shading becomes too large and the ground vegetation dissolves.

Pasture

In autumn, a few weeks after the hay harvest, pets can graze on their second growth for a short period. This pasture is beneficial for the meadow vegetation, because the animals kick the seeds that fell out of the haymaking into the ground and so many more seeds get into the germination bed and their probability of germination is increased. When autumn rains begin, the animals are removed from the pasture in order to avoid treading on the sodden ground. In order to avoid any hot spots , the dung heaps were traditionally scattered on the meadow in spring with a cane.

Use of wood

Wood was felled in autumn, winter or early spring. There was valuable timber for the residential or farm buildings, fence posts, tool handles, barrel hoops , spokes, wheel rims and much more. Thinning is a prerequisite for lush growth of the herbaceous vegetation and a rich hay harvest. Without wood removal, a deciduous meadow would turn into a closed forest in a few years. At the beginning of the 20th century, most of the leafy meadows became increasingly shady. The productivity of the meadows, which are at their optimum with a certain degree of shade, which must not be exceeded, fell. The standard value for maintenance use can be 35% forest cover with woody plants. In the past, special emphasis was placed on the pruning of the hazel bushes. They should keep a strictly upright shape in order to cast as few shadows as possible. Accordingly, dead, old and drooping branches were regularly removed.

history

Cutting knives or leaf sickles for the production of deciduous hay have been known since the late pre-Roman Iron Age , i.e. for around 2000 years, and have hardly changed in shape since then. Knives called Gertel are used in forest cultivation or can be found in hardware stores in countries where hardwood hay is still harvested today. Deciduous meadows in their current species composition can also only have emerged with the spread of the scythe as a harvesting device in the Baltic region. Similar to the cutting knives, these appeared in the late pre-Roman Iron Age (LEUBE 1990). KUKK and KULL (1997) assume that systems similar to deciduous meadows arose before the introduction of the scythe. Multifunctional forms of using wood, leaf fodder and pasture land on the same area certainly began long before that, according to the authors mentioned, around 4000 years ago. However, only the mowing with the scythe can have caused the species combinations that can still be observed today. Just a few hundred years ago, deciduous meadows were widespread as a highly intensive and sophisticated system of use in the southern Baltic region. Population growth in the 19th century, intensification of agriculture and the resulting greater separation of grassland and forest caused the broadest disappearance of the deciduous meadows. In Estonia there were still 850,000 hectares of deciduous meadows at the end of the 19th century. Today there are still around 1,000 hectares.

natural reserve

The high biodiversity not only in terms of the number of species, but also their rarity and endangerment led to the inclusion of the Baltic deciduous meadows in Annex I of Council Directive 92/43 / EEC of May 21, 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and wild animals and plants ( Habitats Directive ) as a so-called priority habitat type under the designation "6530 * Fennoscandian wooded meadow". Numerous areas have been designated to protect this habitat type in Sweden, Finland and the Baltic States. Well-developed deciduous meadows worth seeing are z. E.g. on Öland Lilla Horns Löväng , on Gotland Allekvie Löväng , on the Åland islands Tullarns Äng east of Mariehamn and in Estonia Allika (district Lääne), Laelatu , Nedrema and Vahenurme (the latter district Pärnu). References to deciduous meadows south of Berlin in the Schöbendorfer Busch can be found in FISCHER, W. et al. 1982.

Related ecosystems

Related ecosystems are the much more widespread forest pastures and hat forests. As habitat type "9070 - Fennoscandian wooded pastures" according to Annex 1 of the Habitats Directive, they are protected in the EU member states of the boreal biogeographical zone. The principle of using wood here is similar to that in the deciduous meadows, but sometimes also much more extensive z. B. as pure billet wood use of the mast trees. The herbaceous vegetation is only grazed, so that the typical differences between meadow and pasture become clear here as well.