Nors, Naturreservat

The small nature reserve Nors in northern Gotland is a very botanically interesting area where you can find many animals and plants linked to the old beautiful deciduous trees and swamp forest.

The nature reserve Nors is located in direct connection to the southeastern part of the nature reserve Sigfride and the southwestern part of the nature reserve Bräntings. A visit to Nors can therefore be combined with a visit to the two neighboring reserves. The Nors nature reserve is 26 hectares in size. The natural values found here are mainly linked to the late-grown, coarse or pollarded oaks and ash trees found in the north-eastern part of the area. The trees are home to a very rich lichen flora with several rare species. The area is currently grazed by lambs and has probably been grazed since the late 1600s. The flora here is clearly affected by the long-term grazing, and several orchid species grow here, such as woodruff, wood anemone, night violet and soapwort.

In the southwestern part of the reserve, coniferous swamp forest dominates. Here, the shrub layer is almost completely absent, and here blue moss grows in large cushions on the ground and long-limbed moss and reed moss on the decaying spruce flames. All three mosses indicate high natural values associated with coniferous forests with high humidity and dead wood. There is more lying dead wood in the swamp forest than in the pasture. But the dead wood found in the pasture is of high quality and consists mainly of old pine, oak and ash that are standing or lying relatively sunlit and therefore constitute very valuable substrates for many insects and lichens.