Mire forest in Dahme-Heideseen Nature Park

You can see a moor forest here. Moors occur in damp locations. Here, the dead plant material in the water can not completely decompose due to lack of oxygen and peat is formed. Over millennia, this peat layer grew about 1 mm per year and formed a moor. On this relatively stable ground birch and pine trees could settle. In contrast to their conspecifics on drier and nutrient-rich locations, they grow on the nutrient-poor moorland, however, much smaller and more crippled. In damp years, some trees die to regrow in dry years. This natural process is typical of bog forests.
In addition to the moor birch and moor pines, there are other specialists who can cope with the nutrient-poor and humid living conditions.
The round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia), for example, simply "catches" the nutrients from the air. Insects stick to its sticky leaves and are dissolved by a digestive secretion. Thus, the sundew receives the vital Nitrogen.
The Evergreen Bog-Porst (Rhododendron tomentosum) pursues the strategy of thriftiness. For this he forms leathery and slightly rolled down leaves with dense reddish-brown hair felts on the underside. As a result, he transpires less and his metabolism is slowed down. So he gets along well with the few nutrients.
The moor frog (Rana arvalis) stands out especially at mating time by its blue color.
Further information will be available soon on a local board.