Kalkberget, Naturreservat

Kalkberget Nature Reserve is a small wooded area with rich and varied vegetation. Its location on a steep slope to the south and the calcareous soil mean that many plants with special requirements live here.

Both conifers and deciduous trees

The forest consists of old coniferous forest with a lot of deciduous trees. The trees include many shrubs, such as rose hips and oleanders. The forest is denser in the southern part of the reserve and there is also more spruce. In the north-eastern part there are a lot of open glades and in the north-west the limestone cliffs are exposed.

The kingdom of flowers and fungi

The warm south-facing slope and the limestone-rich bedrock mean that the flora is rich in species and botanically interesting. One rarity is the purple orchid, which blooms in high summer with strongly vanilla-scented dark red flowers. The forest area is also home to several fungi that benefit from lime. The violet mushroom is a compact mushroom with wrinkled ridges that change from yellow-gray to violet. It is edible but should be left in the forest as it is very rare. Kalkberget is also one of the county's few locations for the fern murruta, which is only a decimeter high and whose special appearance means that it cannot be confused.

Old industrial raw material

A steep cliff separates the reserve from the old limestone quarry in Lannafors. Limestone was once quarried in many parts of Bergslagen. The miners called it limestone and it was an important additive in iron production. The lime bound impurities in the ore and made the iron cleaner.

Demanding plants

The reserve was established in 1980 to preserve and protect the rich flora and management consists mainly of keeping after spruce. The heat- and lime-loving plants require open sunlit glades and patchy mixed forest. Therefore, spruce should not be present on more than 15% of the surface.

Accessibility

Kalkberget belongs to level 1 in the County Administrative Board's leveling of the county's nature reserves, which means that the reserve has a wilderness character and lacks outdoor recreation facilities.

Read more about the leveling and management of protected nature