Common beeches are the dominant trees in our forests. They derive their success from the fact that the very dense canopy prevents most of the sunlight from reaching the forest floor. Young trees and most herbaceous plants are “shaded out”. Plants wanting to survive in beech forests have to be very shade-tolerant (like ferns and mosses) or have to develop a special strategy to complete their life-cycle before the canopy closes in early May– like spring geophytes. They flower very early in the year and their development of seeds and fruits is exceptionally fast. Afterwards, the geophytes outlast the season with the help of special storage facilities, like bulbs, tubers or rhizomes.

Beech forests rich in geophytes only occur on alkaline soils, which for example develop on Muschelkalk. The flowers of fumewort, golden anemone and ramsons form a colourful carpet in spring – a real feast for the eyes!

The “forests between Iburg and Aschenhütte” are part of the project “Exquisite nature”. Up to 2012 several other areas will be developed: streams, flower-rich grasslands and bizarre juniper heathlands – all of them are part of the European natural heritage in the cultural landscape of Höxter County. Please take up the offer to discover our “Nature without boundaries” – many more sites worth visiting await you.