Gultberget, Naturreservat

Lush flora, a diversity of butterflies and hundreds of species of fungi offer a visit to the Gultberget Nature Reserve.
The environment on Gultberget, which is a limestone-rich hyperite mountain, varies from moist alder forest in the southeast to dry meadow environment on the mountain's high part. In the area, groundwater emerges in several springs and irrigates large areas.

The reserve was established to preserve a deciduous forest area with rich flora and fauna and rare and nationally threatened plant and animal species. The area is part of the EU's ecological network of protected areas, Natura 2000.

Animals and plants

The vegetation in the reserve is characterized by lush deciduous forests, mainly wild and relatively coarse-stemmed gray alder stands. In the undergrowth there are shrubs such as cranberry, elderberry, currant and woodruff and tall herbs such as red campion, spring barley, & wreathwort. In the drier parts higher up on the mountain, bluebells, coneflowers and sweet wood.

The bird fauna, but especially the butterfly fauna and the fungal flora are rich and benefit from the special environment. Two examples are the yellow-backed fieldfare, whose caterpillar feeds on spring barley, and the alder fly agaric, which forms mycorrhizae with alder and prefers calcareous soils.