Heide

Dive into the purple sea of heather and discover the secrets that lie beneath the surface. Indeed, the nutrient-poor soil of the Grenspark proves to be very fertile for various rare flora and fauna.

The history of our heathland

As the name suggests, the Kalmthoutse Heide is characterised by heath landscapes. These landscapes were not created by chance, but by people. This was done by grazing, cutting down and burning down the original forest. The actually poor soil with relatively little nutritional value could thus be used for the benefit of people and animals. Due to the balanced interaction between the work of farmers, their grazing animals and the vegetation of the heathland, people were able to survive on the poor soil. With the advent of mechanised agriculture around 1950, as much as 90% of Europe's heathland disappeared in a short time. Grenspark Kalmthoutse Heide is a remnant of this once vast heathland.

Flora

Shrub heather, reindeer moss, cup moss, heather, moor grass and purple moor: all of these can be found throughout the year in the Grenspark. How do you recognise them? We describe them below.

Purple sea full of surprises

The most typical plant of the dry heath is heather, which turns the heath into a sea of purple with its purple flowers from July to September. Because of all the purple, you almost cannot see the (lichen) mosses! Under and between the old heather, for instance, reindeer moss and cup mosses grow. Reindeer mosses can be recognised by their antler-like branches.

Both typical for the Kalmthoutse Heide and extremely rare is little weed. The small, bell-shaped and light pink flower does not suggest that we are dealing with a parasite. With its thread-thin red stems, ragwort attaches itself to a host and feeds on it. Since 1950, this species has become much less common in the Netherlands and Flanders and it is therefore on the Red List of plants that are protected and/or threatened with extinction. Other typical plants in the nature reserve include brush grass, pilgrass and the rare tooth grass (rest assured, it does not bite).

Different flowers on different grounds

The species of plants and flowers you find in our nature reserve each tell you something about the moisture of the soil on which they grow. Where the soil is more humid, the many yellow flowers of tormentil, creeping broom and prickly broom grow. In places where the soil is wet in winter and sufficiently moist in summer, we find overgrowth of common heath, with its pink urn-shaped flowers in 'clusters'. In very wet places in the area, they are joined by cranberry, peat moss, migratory sagebrush and peat moss. Much rarer are bone broom with its bright yellow flowers and the deep blue flowers of bell gentian. On ploughed areas or along fens edges, we regularly see pioneer vegetation - spontaneously emerging vegetation - with small or round sundew (a carnivorous plant) white and brown beaked bog, and sometimes the rare marsh wolf's claw. We especially cherish these species-rich types of wet heath in the Grenspark: they are doubly valuable, both because they are rare internationally and because they characterise this area.

That certainly does not apply to arrowstraw! This grass species really belongs in the heath vegetation, grows in dense tussocks and is omnipresent in the Grenspark. In recent decades, however, pipe moor grass has expanded considerably under the influence of nitrogen precipitation: it is a strong grower and other plants cannot compete with it. In large parts of the Grenspark, this grass species therefore determines the colour of the landscape. It is green from May to September and yellow the rest of the year. Dead stems and leaves decompose poorly on the poor sandy soil and form a thick layer of litter. Moreover, the grass is highly flammable when dry and can cause wildfires to spread very quickly.