Gråberget, Naturreservat

Lichen grows abundantly on the coarse aspens, and in some places there is so much that in damp weather you can almost be fooled into thinking you are in a jungle.

The area consists mainly of the two mountains Svartningen and Gråberget. The western slopes of both mountains are sharp with boulders and mudflats, as are parts of the northern slope of Gråberget.

Gråberget used to have a lookout tower for fire spotting. The tower is gone now, but there are still good views from parts of the reserve. On the flatter peaks there are several bogs. The forest is mostly rocky pine forest, with elements of spruce swamp forest. Pine overhangs are scattered in the area and in places there is plenty of aspen and dead wood. Part of the reserve consists of old natural forest, where there has previously been a fire. There are traces of four fires in a dead pine.

The nature reserve was established to preserve the valuable habitats of rocky slopes and scree slopes, small wooded crevice valleys with rich cryptogamic flora (e.g. mosses, lichens and fungi) and older rocky pine forests, and to preserve the associated plant and animal communities.

Animals and plants

The reserve's coarse aspens offer a rich flora of mosses, lichens and fungi such as the aspen cap moss, aspen jelly lichen and large aspen tick. In the swamp forest areas, the lichen flora is favored by the high and even humidity. In the steep parts of the reserve there are some overhangs and there are plenty of seepage paths, which especially benefits the moss flora. The bedrock is calcareous and there is a calcareous flora with, for example, bladderwort, black bracken and witch hazel.