Floastad, Naturreservat

Floastad consists mainly of a few hills where old, late-growing mountain oak grows. The trunks are crooked, thin and draped with green mosses and lichens. Beech and hazel also grow in some parts. There is a marked path up to one of the peaks where you have a nice view of the Högvadsån valley.

The best view is from a peak in the western part of the reserve. Here the mountain slopes steeply downwards so be careful if you go here! It's even said that the mountain was used as an ancestral hut in the past. When the elderly could no longer support themselves or contribute to the work on the farm, they threw themselves down to their certain death.

Greenstone and bluebells

A visit to Floastad is best in the spring, before the deciduous trees have completely died out. From the hills you have a nice view of the landscape and among the leaves of last year's leaves, bluebells look up. The bedrock in Floastad has elements of basic greenstone, which means that bluebells, black magic grape and other more demanding vascular plants thrive here. There are several heaths in the reserve, and one of these has the moss spiny grimia and the fern black bracken, also species that benefit from greenstone in the bedrock. Other valuable species in the reserve include the signal species lung lichen, elm lichen and beech feather moss. They all grow on old deciduous trees, which shows that the area has high natural values.

The spruce was removed

Floastad's natural values were recognized during an inventory in 1992, but the area's qualities have been known for longer than that. In the early 1800s, Sven Peter Bexell wrote that Floastad has the best oak forest in the parish.

Until recently, there was a lot of spruce in the old hardwood stands. Thanks to its strong position in production forests, spruce spreads very easily. In many places it can completely outcompete deciduous trees. Even the common deciduous trees, but especially the noble deciduous trees, have very high natural values associated with them and therefore these trees must sometimes be helped in nature conservation work. The spruce trees have been carefully removed from Floastad and now a light forest remains that is easy to walk in.