page_title: Skuleskogen National Park
section_title: Flora
hierarchical_section_title: Skuleskogen National Park / Environment / Flora
caption_attribution_description: Swamp in Skuleskogen national park
context_page_description: Skuleskogen National Park is a Swedish national park in Västernorrland County, on the coast of the Baltic Sea, in northern Sweden. It covers 30.62 km², constituting the eastern part of the Forest of Skule.
  The park is characterized by a very rough topology with many rocky peaks, of which the highest is Slåttdalsberget, 280 m in altitude, rising directly from the sea. The topography is also marked by the presence of deep crevasses and caves. This particular topology can be found throughout the entire High Coast, a region of Sweden so named because it constitutes the highest section of the coast of the Baltic Sea. This region is in our day principally known as a favoured site for the observation of the phenomenon of post-glacial rebound. Most of the region was under the sea less than 10,000 years ago, after the ice sheet that blanketed it melted. But thanks to the melting of this mass of ice that had been pressing down upon it, the ground is rising year by year, at a current speed of 8 mm per year.
  Humans have left their mark upon the park, although they probably never established themselves there in great numbers.
context_section_description: Skuleskogen is located on the northern border of the range of several plant species. Thus several deciduous tree species are present in the park, such as the little-leaf linden (Tilia cordata), the common hazel (Corylus avellana), the guelder-rose (Viburnum opulus), and the Norway maple (Acer platanoides). The presence of these species is considered more of a relic of a warmer era than a feature of the current times. Their survival has been rendered possible by the unusual conditions encountered at the foot of certain mountains called Sydväxtberg (literally "mountain of southern-like vegetation"): the orientation of the rock face to the sun and the humidity brought about by the mountain offer a favorable microclimate which, in conjunction with the fertile soil, permits plants which do not normally grow at so high a latitude to thrive.
  However, deciduous forest only covers 42 hectares (100 acres), barely more than 1.4% of the surface area of the park. Thus, the forest is principally coniferous forest, characteristic of the Scandinavian and Russian taiga ecoregion. This forest is mainly made up of Norway spruce (Picea abies), but at the frontier with the barren zones, the main species is Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). Pines dominate because forest fires are less frequent than previously, since birch and Scots pine are the first species to return after a fire. It seems that fires occurred naturally over the ages, but there has not been a fire for two centuries, humans actively fighting against their propagation. The maximum age of the trees of the forest is 100 years, but certain pines have reached 500 years, being particularly inaccessible and thus spared by loggers. However, during the last 100 years, the forest has partially recovered the richness which characterizes old growth forests.
  In the coniferous forests, one can find several shrubs, of which the most common are blue whortleberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), Melampyrum sylvaticum and woundwort (Solidago virgaurea). In the richer soil, one can also find Hepatica nobilis, Alpine blue-sow-thistle (Cicerbita alpina), wall lettuce (Mycelis muralis), as well as several species of ferns, such as worm fern (Dryopteris filix-mas) et la common lady-fern (Athyrium filix-femina).
  A large part of the park (36%) consists of naked rock, and is thus a poor substrate for vegetation. The principal trees are dwarf pines which have not been affected by logging and which thus can be up to 500 years old. Besides these small trees, the vegetation is almost wholly of a shrubby nature, with common heather (Calluna vulgaris), common juniper (Juniperus communis), or bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi). These zones are also home to a large number of species of mosses and lichens.
  Many mosses and lichens of the park are considered endangered in Sweden, in particular Dolichousnea longissima, which is now the park's symbol.
caption: A wetland in the park
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