page_title: Hotzenwald
section_title: Vegetation
hierarchical_section_title: Hotzenwald / Vegetation
caption_attribution_description: English: The plant Scheuchzeria palustris in a late stage of flowering (resp. beginning of fruiting). Deutsch: Blasen- oder Blumenbinse (Scheuchzeria palustris) während der Blüte (bzw. Übergang zur Fruchtphase).
context_page_description: The Hotzenwald is a landscape and region in the Southern Black Forest in the county of Waldshut. Its headquarters was the Waldvogteiamt.
context_section_description: After the ice age the Hotzenwald region experienced a tundra climate. There is evidence of beech being the dominant species of tree up to 600 B. C.. In addition, grain pollen, which dates to a similar period, is an indication of the first settlement of the Hotzenwald. Around 1,000 A. D. spruce superseded beech as the predominant tree species.
  The raised bogs (Hochmoore) and transitional bogs (Übergangsmoore) especially in the Ibach/Dachsberg area, as a relic of the ice age, are home to a rich variety of species otherwise rare in the Black Forest such as bog-rosemary, mud sedge and fewflower sedge, rannoch-rush, alpine bulrush, white beak-sedge or purple coltsfoot. The European Arctic starflower has a strong presence in the Hotzenwald, which is also the only place in the whole of South Germany where the cross-leaved heath occurs naturally. Especially in the first half of the 20th century, the forestry industry’s attempts at drainage drastically reduced the number of bogs. As a result, several bogs in the Hotzenwald were declared as nature reserves; in 1998 there were 10 of them. In addition, attempts have been made to regenerated some of the old bogs.
  The forests in the Ibach/Dachsberg area and the Upper Forest (Oberwald) consist mainly of firs, beech and spruce. In the poorly drained hollows these are interrupted by bogs or spruce woods. In the second half of the 20th century several areas of highland pasture were turned into forests. Likewise during this period, reforestation of the steep heads of the valleys, mountainsides and unused valley grasslands was begun. By contrast, the terraced slopes of the outer forests were largely cleared.
  On the high pastures the winged greenweed plays an important role.
caption: Blumenbinse (Scheuchzeria palustris)
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