Photo taken on Jun 09, 2012
View more details/download wallpaper size (1920х1280, 0,39 M).

Colder water and soil might be not such a big problem: to the North of this bog, with colder climates, we have yet hundreds of kilometers of dense forests with nice big trees. One more problem is acidity of peat soils — рН 2.8-3.4, which classifies them as “extremely acid”. Any plant grower knows: most plants feel good in neutral (pH 5,6–6,9) or slightly acid (pH 5,0–5,5) soils. On acid soils they either die right away, or if they do not, than they poorly absorb nutrients, suffer from lack of normal soil bacteria and become an easy target for diseases; and, by the way, water absorption by root hairs is reduced, too.

As of trees, only pines and birches (silver and downy) can survive in such extreme conditions, and only in elevated locations. All the rest — fir-trees, aspens, lindens, oaks, etc. — stick to mineral islands. Formally, the flora of the reserve is not very diverse: there are only 449 plant species (not taking into account mosses), while Tatiana Alexandrovna mentioned that another (non-bog) nature reserve has trice as much plant species. Still, this flora is very special.

species Scots pine Pinus sylvestris