Edskärrets nature reserve

Edskärret is located just outside Östhammar and is a sunny, extremely rich fen conditioned by a number of spring flows in connection with an esker, Börstilåsen/Hargsåsen. Firm fens dominate the wetland but wetter areas occur as well as sphagnum hummocks overgrown with heather and dwarf pines. Edskärret is home to several lime-demanding and locally uncommon plants. The open fen area, covering half a hectare, is dominated by needle spike-rush and river water-plantain. Many orchids and other rich fen species are abundant, including marsh helleborine, fly orchid, slender marsh bedstraw, lady's slipper, lousewort, tall bog-sedge and narrow-leaved marsh-bedstraw. Other abundant species include globe-flower, beaked sedge, meadow sedge, club sedge, bogbean and cotton-grass. Brown mosses such as golden spagnum moss and delicate scorpion moss dominate the ground layer. In small water bodies, calcium marl is exposed and here stoneworts grow, including the red-listed intermediate stonewort. The rich fen is also home to the exclusive mollusks horny pit-snail, slender pit-snail and toothed snail. Around the fen there are rich forests affected by spring flows and mobile lime-rich groundwater. A large part of the area consists of an herb-rich swamp forest dominated in the tree layer by spruce, birch, alder and pine. In the swamp forest there is plenty of the otherwise rare downy moss, which in total covers over 130 m² within a two-hectare area. The other forests are also clearly affected by the high lime content and are classified as lime coniferous forests. The proportion of slow-growing spruces covered with old-growth spruce lichens and cat's-foot lichen is large. The wood fungal flora is very rich, as evidenced by species such as spindle-head fungus, violet webcap, pale fingerprint fungus, spiny tooth fungus and copper tooth fungus. Some dead wood is scattered throughout the forest and on this grows, among other things, green shield moss. In the west is the pine-forest-clad esker slope with a gravel pit bordering the area where the uncommon butterflies clover sooty wing and Swedish ground-fly have been found. The forests around the fen were ditched in 1979, which has a negative impact on the area. The fen is now somewhat overgrown with birch, alder and spruce. In places there is also encroaching reed. Source: Nature Register (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency) and OpenStreetMap.