Harrild Hede, The Jutland Heath in August

The heath is a special place on a day with no humans to see far and wide except us two people and no sound from traffic or anything. It's so quiet. Like Björk sings: "It's oh, so quiet". Except for the humming little bees!

But I can imagine how it must have been to wander on the large heath from house to house, where the distances were far, to overnight by a heath-farmer and his wife or sleep out in the open air with the starry sky above. Many people lived like that , they had to in order to earn a living. They used the heather twigs for brooms and other things and they sold some heather peat, but they also sold woolen things like homeknit woolen socks, perfect and warm for the winter season, easy to bring with them and easy to sell, and this was tbe first beginning of the wool-fabrication in the middle of Jutland with the energetic  town Herning as a center of the wool-industry. But this is not about the wool - this is about the Jutland heath. And the heath has a special place in a Jutlander's heart.

Holtum Aa River.

Here at Holtum Aa river by Harrild a Danish movie was made in the early forties about some vagabonds, one of the most popular comedies in Danish film-history. The hero, who was one of our most beloved actors, was singing a lovely and happy summer song, which is still being played in the radio. And it is odd that he was walking here on this place singing this song.
Well, look at the photo, I stood there for some time imagining something - and the photo shows surprisingly perfect what I mean. Couldn't you just imagine Hamlet's Ophelia coming floating along upon the twining waterplants with the pretty white flowers? If you are a romantic soul I'm sure you could imagine just that !

John Millais, Ophelia (Tate Gallery)

Queen Gertrud about Ophelia's death:
"..............when down she fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, and mermaidlike awhile they bore her up. ......................but long it could not be till that her garments, heavy with their drink, pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay to muddy death".   

Harrild Hede lies between the towns Ikast and Brande, just west of the Jutland  Ridge ( den Jyske Højderyg) in one of the largest wastelands of Mid Jutland. Here is an opportunity to experience open heath and grass heath, which alternates between plantation and clean, fast-flowing water-streams. Here is also a special fauna, since this nature gives good conditions for wild deer and some rare birds. In the southern part of the land are rests of prehistoric fields, some north-south turned, low, parallel earth banks, each with a distance between 20-25 meters.



Skov og Naturstyrelsen ( Forest and Nature Management)  takes care of the heath by removing unwanted tree-growth and by mowing and burn lesser areas at a time, by which the heather - which usually has got a longevity of ab. 25 years -  will be renewed.  The fringes along the water streams are being grazed in order not to leap into forest and to create good conditions for insects and flowers. The forest cultivation is given up in the future upon the unfit localitites, which then are allowed to become heath or fringe. In the cultivated forest the management will try to establish a network of belts, consisting of stable tree-species like oak, forest fir and larch. The purpose is to create a larger variation.

The image is a painting by Johan Fr. Vermehren from 1855: En jysk fårehyrde på heden (A Jutland shepherd on the heath. The painting is at Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen. 

Harrild Hede holds several animals and plants, which are typically found in places like in these heaths and their connected moist lands. Plants are besides heather typically bell-heather, rosemary heather, cranberry, crowberry, lingbonberry and blueberry. The heather produces nectare which attracts the bees, and a honey from the heather (Danish: lynghonning) is a fine and expensive honey.

Red-backed shrike (adult and young)

Here breeds Eurasian teal, Wood sandpiper, Common snipe, Nightjar, Eurasian wryneck, Black woodpecker, Great-grey shrike and Redbacked shrike, Wood lark and Whinchat etc. Many other birds are seen like the White-tailed eagle, the Golden eagle, Cranes, Eurasian hobby, Red-footed falcon - several owls like the Eurasian eagle-owl, the Long-eared owl, and the Tawny owl etc. Last year and in 2010 a Short-toed Snake eagle stayed in the area for a period. In the forested areas is a big flock of roe deer and red deer, especially seen in the morning and evening hours. There are of course also many reptiles and  amphibians. And insects, ab. 30 dragonfly-species and 45 butterfly-species.

beehives

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According to this list of flora and fauna I should really have lots of photos of  birds and animals in this post, but I wasn't there in the morning or in the evening hours. There were no butterflies here today - which is a mystery.  Maybe next year. But I did meet millions of bees, they were humming and summing and working, they were fetching honey for the many beehives which stood along the edge of the forest eveywhere, and I saw them fetching water too. The bees are divided into many job-categories. Did you know that? I didn't. Not in this particular way. Those little bees (please enlarge the photos)  were the water fetchers. They use the water to cool the beehive, not to drink it.

A water fetcher

nurse and housekeeper

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Other bee-jobs: builder, packing pollen, honey-fetcher, guard, blowing-bee, scout, housekeeper, nursing kids
 

  A significant part of Harrild Hede was listed in 1954 in order to keep and take care of this fragile piece of nature, but this land is just a rest of the large heath which covered most of the Jutland peninsula about 100-200 years ago. In the 1700s the heath covered 1/2 of Jutland.   Today the large, widespread heath has almost disappeared, but not without a trace. There are marked traces in place names and farms and in the language and traditions - and the heath has also left rich traces in art and litterature. Some of  the most wellknown and loved Jutland poets are the heath-romantic writer and pioneer, Steen Steensen Blicher, and the environmentalist and preservation activist, Jeppe Aajær, who fought a fierce fight to save the Jutland heath from cultivation, and the smallholders' poet, Johan Skjoldborg, who wrote about  the smallholders and their conditions on the heath -  and finally H.C. Andersen, who wrote the wonderful Jutland national song.

What the heather was used for:
Bronze Age hills were often built upon heather-peat.  Up till about 100-200 years ago the heather was used by the heath-farmer for sheep and cattle fodder, it was used for fuel and thatching roofs, in early times even for building the house, it was good as a bed.straw in the alcove, as backfilling on sandy heath roads, and what was left and not used by the farmer at home was sold in the nearest town on the market - or the heath-farmer went from door to door in the large heath, staying out for weeks, selling brooms and other things made by heather and crossberry twigs, and selling some heather peat for peoples' stoves. The green heather was used for dyeing wool browngreen - and with alum the wool was dyed lemon yellow.

Harrild Hede is one of Denmark's most important bird habitats and also an Ef-habitat area. 3 hiking paths are marked in the area - and there are fishing places at Holtum Aa river. Brochures and information for free at the Tourist Bureaus and at the libraries -  and at the entrance to Harrild Hede itself.  Smoking is forbidden in the area due of fire hazard.

Are you ready for a walk? The path is longer than you think.....

I tried to catch a dragonfly - do you see a dragonfly in the clouds ?

...but then came a helicopter. What a dragonfly!!

photo August 2012 Harrild Hede, Jutland: grethe bachmann

Fine-Leaved Water Dropwort / Billebo Klaseskærm

Oenanthe aquatica

Previous names: Oenanthe phellandrium / Phellandrium aquaticum

Status:  poisonous.
 Most other species of Oenanthe are poisonous.

Oenanthe is from Greek and means honey-wine flower. The English name Water Dropwort: swollen tubers resemble drops, a signature in medieval times that it opened blocked urinary tracks drop by drop. Other English names are Water Fennel and Horsebane. The Danish name Billebo ( = a beettle's house). When the  plant has died the hollow stems are floating upon the surface of the water and little water insects like beetles like to use them as a getaway.
 
The plant is native to Europe and western Asia. It is biennial and flowering (white flowers)  in July - September in its second year of growth.  Its habitai is at the edge of lakes, rivers and ponds -in mineral-rich soil and slowly flowing water. It has a very distinct smell of parsley, which os useful when it has to be identified. The plant is quite characteristic with its strongly divided stem and garlands of thick roots at the bottom. The fruits are spread by water. 

foto: stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk

Medicinal use /Folk medicine:
The fruits have been used in chronic pectoral affections like bronchitis, pulmonary consumption and asthma, also in dyspepsia, obstinate ulcers etc. An alcoholic extract and essence of the fruits has also been recommended as a valuable remedy in the relief of consumption and bronchitis.

The root has sometimes been used as a local remedy in piles. When eaten in mistake the results have sometimes proved fatal. The symptoms produced are those of irritation of the stomach, failure of circulation and great cerebral disturbance, indicated by giddiness, convulsions and coma.

Medicinal use today:
Homeopathy only.


Cattle:
The fresh leaves are injurious to cattle, producing a kind of paralysis when eaten. When dried they lose their deleterious properties.



Poisoning:
depressive, death from paralysis. Overdose of fruits causes vertigo, intoxication. Symptoms: irritation of stomach, failure of circulation, cerebral disturbance, giddiness, convulsions, coma

foto: stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk

Story from the 17th century:

Case recorded by John Ray 17th century: quoting letter from Irish physician Dr. Francis Vaughan: "8 boys went fishing in Clonmell, Tiperary. They mistook Oneanthe aquaticum for Sium aquaticum and ate the roots. 4-5 hours after arriving home they had fits, 4 died, the other 3 ran stark mad, but came to reason, another's hairs and nails fell out. All had their speech paralysed.

NB:
The Water Dropwort /Billebo is from the umbelliferae or apiacea family. It's a relative to Carrot, Fennel, Dill, Anise, Caraway, Angelica and other plants with clusters or umbels of flowers and fine feathery leaves, plants and herbs we know so well and use in the kitchen, but there are among the umbelliferaes also some extremely poisonous plants like the Cowbane and the Poison Hemlock and the above mentioned Water Dropwort, and they can be difficult to identify.



Source: Danmarks Natur, Felthåndbogen; Fugle og Natur; Herbs Treat-and Taste; A Modern Herbal.
Photo Vejlbo Mose: grethe bachmann nielsen
Photo Moesgård: stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan .dk . 

Vejlbo Mose, Silkeborg

 

For several hundred years was dug peat here in Vejlbo Mose by common people from the town Silkeborg, who needed fuel for their houses in the winter season , but in the 1800s a paper factory was established in the town. They needed fuel for the factory, so they got a contract on peat-digging. A peat factory was established after French role model. The peat production stopped in 1870.  At that time the moor had been dug through in full depth, and the present lake emerged.

cowbane

Bog Arum

path around Vejlbo Mose

 Vejlbo Mose is a raised bog-lake, characterized by its acidic water, which is coloured brown by the dissolved humic substances. It is a very popular recreational area, close to the town of Silkeborg and with a good path and a varied nature. Vejlbo Mose has a rich flora and fauna. Although it is obvious now that the birch is growing fast and covers a part of the edge along the lake there is still sweet gale and heather here, and cranberry, lingonberry, blueberry, the bog arum and water lilies and many other water plants and also the poisonous cowbane. There are usually many dragonflies and butterflies and of course the sweet ducks and other water fowls and there are reptiles too, which I haven't seen often, lizards, grass snakes and vipers. In spring time are especially good opportunities to see vipers - and Naturstyrelsen (Nature Management) tell us  to tread carefully.

heather

autum colour in the green

 

ducks on stalks of water lilies.

dark green water

and deep blue

what's up - what's down?

The raised bogs: 
 In Denmark and in several other West European countries it was obvious after WWII that the raised bogs were threatened by complete extinction, and many raised bogs are today protected and the extraction of spaghnum is submitted to control by the State. This is not the case in some East European countries ( and Sweden). Here are still important raised bog areas which are considered more or less as an unlimited ressource, and extraction goes still on and  in a speed which is much faster than the natural regeneration.

Depending on geological and climatic conditions it takes from several hundreds till several thousands of years for a raised bog to regenerate, but in many cases it is not possible because the climatic conditions are different from when the raised bog was originally formed.  In many countries - also in Denmark - the raised bogs are also threatened by natural degeneration,  since birch and fir start to grow in the dry parts of the  bog, which then grows into forest.




photo Vejlbo Mose 11. August 2012: grethe bachmann

---

Rold Forest, Lakes and Highwaymen

Poppies on a road bank

Rold skov (Rold forest)  is named after the village of Rold, which lies in the southern outskirt of the forest. Other towns in Rold Skov include Arden, Rebild and Skørping. Rebild National Park (Danish: Rebild Bakker), a Danish national park consisting of heather-covered hills, is located in a part of Rold Skov. Rebild National Park was founded in 1912 by Danish Amercians as a gift to Denmark. The park is known for its 4th of July celebration, the largest held outside the United States. Rold skov is a natura 2000 area and it is both habitat-area and bird protection area.

Store Økssø

Lille Mossø

Store Økssø

Vandnavle/ Marsh Pennywort

Water-Lilies

Mermen?

This day in a sunny weather with a few showers we visited a couple of lakes in Rold skov where we have often found interesting plants and insects. The small lake is Mossø (there is another lake in Denmark called Mossø, it's a big lake near Silkeborg) The big one is Store Økssø, the second largest lake in Rold skov. It is 33 ha with a depth of 8 meter. It is a genuine forest lake, surrounded by forest and moor. The water is clean, but the lake is nutrient-poor and acidic, so the water is brown from the dissolved huminic substances. The lake is owned by the Danish State, so the fishing is free. Bass and eel are common fish here. The lake attracts many birds in the migration period and big flocks of Goldeneyes are seen. If you are lucky you can see the osprey diving after fish. A special thing by Økssø is that there is a possibility for horse-bathing. There is a bridle-path down to the place where the horses can have a bath on a hot day. There are also bathing places for humans! But they are elsewhere!

We were a litte late for the butterflies we usually see in this place in July, but when we got out of the car by the little Mossø, a rare butterfly flew up from a tree. My son got a photo, before it disappeared. It was the Iris (English: Purple Emperor). It is rarely seen in Jutland (more often at Zealand). Here on this place there is no info about it. It was very a very special sight. I couldn't get a phto before it disappeared. Later we went back to watch, and again it flew up from the same tree - and again I couldn't get a photo. Pity!

Well, it was a lovely day out. July has been so rainy and stormy . I hope August and September will be better .

Lingonberry/ Cowberry

At Mossø  were many lingonberries, also called cowberries, and then there were some berries which are not so common, namely the Cornus suecica, Swedish cornel or Bunchberry (in Danish and Swedish called hønsebær = hen-berry).  They flower i May-June - and now in August they have got some fine red berries, which remind about the lingonberries, only they are bigger.

Swedish cornel/ Svensk Hønsebær

Swedish cornel: 
 Swedish cornel grows in moist acidic soil, typically together with cranberry, dwarf birch, bog bilberry, cloudberry, yellow rattle and hare's tail cottongrass. The Swedish cornel is native to cool temperate and subarctic regions of Europe and Asia, and locally in extreme northeastern and nortwestern North America. They are herbaceous perennials, growing to 5-15 cm tall. The flowers are small dark purple in a tight umbel, sourrounded by four white petal-like bracts. The fruit is a red berry.  The Swedish cornel 's habitat is wet woods and rocks. It is nearly circumboreal. In North America the species is found in Alaska, in British Columbia (Canada), and also eastern Canada (Labrador, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Quebec as well as Greenland, but it is absent in the intervening region.
Where Cornus canadensis, a forest species, and Cornus suecica, a bog species, grow near each other in their overlapping ranges in Alaska, Labrador and Greenland, they can hybridize by cross-pollination, producing plants with intermediate characteristics.

Lingonberry/Cowberry

Lingonberry 
The lingonberry or cowberry (Danish: Tyttebær) was known for thousands of years, but it was rarely cultivated. When the Bronze Age grave of the Egtvedgirl was opened many years ago, they found rests of lingonberry wine in the grave. The bush is fine everywhere in the garden, because it covers the ground with a pretty evergreen layer with flowers and berries. The taste of the berries is a little bitter, but they are excellent for pickles. The high content of benzoic makes them very sustainable. The berries contain many vitamins and minerals, and they are said to counteract urinary infections (like cranberry). The seeds are rich in Omega-3.

The lingonberries were actually once a main essential element to keep people healthy in Sweden through the long winters, where they could not get fresh vegetables. A porridge with fat, salten pork and pickled lingonberry was a classical meal in winter. Because of their high content of benzoic it was possible to make the berries durable without cooking them.
 .

The Highwaymen in Rold 
 Rold Skov lies in Himmerland. It is Denmarks largest
coherent forest complex with 8.600 ha. The forest

was through centuries connected to robbery and violent assaults. Up til the beginning of the 1800s highwaymen were an unpleasant reality for the wayfarers. The big forest lay as a barrier across Himmerland, and the road around it was long and difficult, so people had to use the main tracks through the forest, a piece of the old Hærvejen and another road called Roldvej. Close to Roldvej was the highwaymen's den. There are many exciting storeis about these highwaymen or robbers. A large gang of robbers was uncovered in the 1830s and the trial against them took seven years. Several hundred people were involved in the robberies. One of the convicted was called Bettefanden (Littledevil) and the Jutland author Steen Steensen Blicher wrote a funny short story about him in 1846.

                                                                                                 

















 Røverhulen ( the Highwaymen's den) lies close to one of the old roads Roldvej, which is now a bridle path. It is an impressive hole. According to legend it was a well-hidden resort for the highwaymen . They lived here in shelter of wind and weather and they stretched strings with little bells in the trees, which told them  about the traffic on the road and the eventual loot. The "Robbers of Rold" were stopped  for good -  and so were some highwaymen in another large forest area, Jyske Aas, where another gang was uncovered and punished. From this trial origins the expression "norden for lands lov og ret" ( north of the country's law and order). The forests back then were considered the darkest, darkest Jutland, where it was dangerous to travel.


Today there is a resturant at Rebildvej called Røverhulen and at the same address a smaller place called Bettefanden.




photo 4 August 2012: grethe bachmann

 

What Children say - about School

I've found something for you about the funny kids. The children have now began school after the holidays - they have began school this week here in Denmark - I don't know if it's the same in every country, but nearly almost I presume.
The stuff about kids below shows how their brains work, and I think they are wonderful. I'm sure we could all have selected material from our own children and their friends and from our grandchildren - if only we wrote it down!  But some people write it down for us to see and for us to have a little fun.
So have fun!
Grethe




Just before school begins: 

I' m looking forward to math because it makes me smarter and smarter. I'm not looking forward to recess because I'm afraid I'll be out of energy before I get home.
Molly, 8

I'm looking forward to math. I like numbers. I'm not looking forward to lunch, especially the chicken nuggets. They're usually burnt.
Katie, 8

I'm not looking forward to math and homework because I can't watch TV.
Julia, 7

I'm looking forward to writing in cursive. I want to learn it because I only know how to write my name! I'm not looking forward to a new teacher. My teacher is having a baby so I will have a substitute for almost the whole year!
Kari, 8

I'm looking forward to meeting some new friends. I'm not looking forward to the rules there are so many to remember, and bullies.
Finbar, 7

I'm not looking forward to being bad and getting sent to the principal.
Emily, 8

I'm looking forward to math because I like adding. I'm not looking forward to science because I don't like making stuff.
Kiley, 7

I'm looking forward to seeing my friend Jordan because I haven't seen him all summer. I'm not looking forward to homework.
Nathan, 7

I'm looking forward to going back to school. It's cool. There's nothing I'm not looking forward to. I like it all.
Kian, 12

I'm looking forward to meeting new friends. I'm not looking forward to homework because I have to stay up almost the whole night.
Darian, 7


Proverbs

A Virginia teacher presented each child in her class with the first half of a well-known proverb, a different adage to each child, asking that they complete the adage at home. The following were among the replies she received.

1. Don't change horses - until they stop running
2. Never underestimate . . . the power of termites.
3. You can lead a horse to water but . . . How?
4. Don't bite the hand that . . . looks dirty.
5. You can't teach an old dog new . . . math.
6. If you lie down with dogs . . . you'll stink in the morning.
7. An idle mind is . . . the best way to relax.
8. Where there's smoke there's . . . pollution.
9. Happy the bride who . . . gets all the presents.
10. A penny saved is . . . not much.
11. Two's company, three's . . . the Musketeers.
12. Don't put off till tomorrow what . . . you put on to go to bed.
13. Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and . . . you have to blow your nose.
14. There are none so blind as . . . Stevie Wonder.
15. Children should be seen and not . . . spanked or grounded.
16. If at first you don't succeed . . . get new batteries.
17. You get out of something only what you . . . see in the picture on the box
18. When the blind lead the blind . . . get out of the way.
19. A bird in the hand . . . is going to poop on you.
20. Better late than . . . Pregnant

 History
It has been reported to us that the creativity you read in this box came from an anonymous 6th grade class during various history tests throughout some academic year. If so, we are sure that the names have been withheld to protect the guilty. You might think some enterprising teacher collected these mistakes over a longer period and collated them in the collection below. Even if this is the case, the ring of authenticity from them is true and in perfect tune.

• The greatest writer of the Renaissance was William Shakespeare. He was born in the 1564, supposedly on his birthday. He never made much money and is famous only because of his plays. He wrote tragedies, comedies, and hysterectomies, all in Islamic pentameter. Romeo and Juliet are an example of a heroic couple.

• Writing at the same time as Shakespeare was Miguel Cervantes. He wrote Donkey Hote. The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained.

• Delegates from the original 13 states formed the Contented Congress. Thomas Jefferson, a virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were to 2 singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin discovered electricity by rubbing two cats backward and declared, "a horse divided against itself can not stand." Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead.

• Abraham Lincoln was America's greatest precedent. Lincoln's mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves by signing the Emasculation Proclamation . On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the theater and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in the moving picture show. They believe the assinator was John Wilkes Booth, a suposingly insane actor. This ruined Booth's career.

• Johann Bach wrote a great many musical compositions and had a large number of children. In between he practiced on an old spinster which he kept up in his attic. Bach died from 1750 to the present. Bach was the most famous composer in the world and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian, and half English. He was very large.

• Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died from this.

Science class:

"Water is composed of two gins, Oxygin and Hydrogin. Oxygin is pure gin. Hydrogin is gin and water."

"When you breathe you inspire.  When you do not breathe, you expire."

"The body consists of ghree parts -  the brainium, the borax and the abominable cavity. The brainium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abominable cavity contains the bowels, of which there are five: a, e, i, o and u."

" HO2= is hot water and CO₂ is cold water."

"The pistol of a flower  is its only protection against insects."

"A myth is a female moth".

Dark Mullein/Mørk Kongelys
 Verbascum nigrum

Vokslev Kalkgrav, Dark Mullein

Vokslev Kalkgrav, Dark Mullein

Dark Mullein is a wild perennial with a strong upright growth. It forms first a leaf rosette, and from there sprouts up the tall stem with many yellow flowers. The species is drought tolerant and often used in drought plant beds. The stem is square in cross section , pale reddish and almost hairless. The ground-leaves and the bottom stem-leaves are egg-shaped, the other stem-leaves are elliptic. All leaves have a sinuous toothy edge, dark green and almost shiny upper side, but light grey-green and hairy underside. The flowering is in July -August where the flowers are gathered in the upper part of the single stem. The single flowers have yellow petals and violet stamens.The fruits are capsules with many seeds.    

Djursland, Dark Mullein

The root system is a strong deep taproot with many side roots. The seed dispersal is very effective.

Dark Mullein has a natural spread in Sibiria and most of Europe. It is common in most of Denmark, but rare in West Jutland. The species is connected to open or lightly shaded habitats in a soil, which is lightly  moisty or a little dry and rich in humus, calcium and nutrients. It is therefore often found in uncultivated land, banks and pastures.In the heat-characterized oak woods like in a National park west of Warsaw the species is found together with Vincetoxicum hirundinaria, Festuca, Anthericum ramosum, Lilium martagon, Digitalis grandiflora and Silver birch




Great Mullein/ Filtbladet Kongelys 
Verbascum thapsus
 

Jydelejet, Møn, Great Mullein.

Great Mullein is a biennial plant with an upright growth. The first year the plant forms only a leaf rosette and the second year a stiff and strong stem sprouts up with propelled leaves and flowers in the upper part of the stem. The leaves ( both the ground-leaves and the stem-leaves) are egg shaped -elliptic with down-running  stalks, which brings the stem a "winged" look. The edge of the leaves have round points, and both sides are very grey-feltet. The flowering is in July-August, where the yellow flowers are gathered in a plume, which covers the outer half of the sprout. The flowers are a little irregular with three white-haired short and two long, almost hairless stamens. The fruits are capsules with lots of tiny seeds.  

The root system is a strong and deep taproot with many strong side roots.

The Great Mullein is naturally spread in a large area between the Canary Islands and West China and from the Mediterranean and up to Scandinavia and Sibiria. It is naturalized in North America, where the colonists introduced it as a medical plant, and in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Amercia. It prefers light-open or quite naked land without competition from other plants, and it grows best in raw and gravelled soil. At Gudhem klosterruin in Sweden the Great Mullein is found together with fx Common Columbine, Common Soapwort,  Common Toadflax, Satureja acinos, Mugwort, Lady's Bedstraw, Viola odorata, Perforate St. John's Wort, Rough Comfrey and Greater Celandine.  
 
The word Verbascum is possibly from the Latin barba which means beard, referring to the hairy leaves. The Danish name Kongelys refers to that the plant was used as a torch or to the similarity to a big candle. Konge means rising high.



Folk Medicine
Unconscious people were brought to life by sniffing to the smoke from the burning leaves of Verbascum. An essence from the flowers were used to bathe the body. Flowers were used in some expectorant "cough-tea", which among other things contained a sugar, which made the tea well-tasting. According to Henrik Smid (1546) the juice is good for smearing into the face "because it chases away those wrinkles which are in the forehead of old maidens". Henrik Harpestrens (+1244)  recommends it to cleanse evil liquids and Simon Paulli (1648)  was of the opinion that it was an excellent means when "the back of the intestinal goes out". 

 Superstition
The de-flowered stem was used for torches in order to keep the devil at a distance. The seeds contain a substance, which works as an anesthetic on fish, and monks used the stem as a fishing rod. The fish came up with the belly up and was easy to gather with the bare hands. The plant was used in love-charms. A finely divided plant, which had grown in the churchyard, gave the best medicine.

Today's use
The yellow flowers contain a softening mucus for the skin, and flowers and leaves are used in a tea to cure a dry cough.Modern examination and research have proved tuberculosis-retardant properties in extracts from the plant. The flowers can brake exema and heal wounds. The oil from the seeds soothes frostbites and cracked skin. Decoct from the root works diuretic - and when it is used in homeophathy it helps migraine and earache. 

Other use:
The hairy leaves from the Great Mullein were put into shoes to avoid frostbites

Source:  Anemette Olesen, Danske klosterurter, Aschehoug 2001. 

photo: 2007, 2008, 2011: grethe bachmann.

Black-veined White/ Sortåret Hvidvinge

Aporia crataegi

The Black-veined White is one of the large butterflies in Denmark. It has a wing-span of 50-65 mm. It looks at a distance like a Large White, but is known for its sailing flight and for the rounded white wings, which are almost without drawings, except the dark veins. The male has black veins, the female brown.

Light males of Green-veined White might superficially remind about the Black-veined White, but they are much smaller. There is little variation, except that the wing scales can be almost transparent.

The butterfly  flies from late May until late July. Its habitat is heath, pasture, moor and open forest and thicket with growth of hawthorn, rowan and similar plants and trees.

The half-grown caterpillars overwinter together in a flock on the host plant in a solid web of silk and leaves. The fodder plants are Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia), Hawthorn (Crataegus) Sloe (Prunus spinosus) and other bushes and trees.

Behaviour: the flight is calm and sailing, mostly in a few meters height. The butterfly seeks eagerly to fx Sticky catchfly ( DK: tjærenellike),Field scabious ( DK: blåhat)  and Marsh thistle ( DK: kærtidsel). The females are often courted by many males.

habitat: field Gl. Rye, Mid Jutland

Frequency and propagation: The Black-veined White was seen in many places on the Danish Isles until ab. 1950, buf after this time only in Jutland, where it was rare until ab. 1965. It has spread since and is now common in several sections of Jutland. However it is missing in large parts of South Jutland, West Jutland and North Jutland. After 1990 it has began showing at Zealand, and it is probable that it will appear again at Bornholm and maybe at Funen and Lolland.

The number of the Black-veined White varies greatly. The first specimens appear around 20 May and the butterfly disappears again around 1. August. The Black-veined White is mostly seen in Jutland, east and south of Limfjorden, while it was almost 50 years ago it was seen on the Isles -but it is in progress and is now found on the island of Samsø, (east of Århus), from where there is a short distance to the northern part of Funen. 



Source:
Michael Stoltze: Dagsommerfugle i Danmark, 1997.  Danmarks fugle og natur, Felthåndbogen, Aug. 2012.