Heathland

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is still one of Germany’s most famous poets. One of his best-known works is the poem “Heidenröslein”. It tells of a boy who wants to pick a rose “on the heath”. The plant resists and pricks him, but it is no match for the boy’s strength. Several composers have set the poem to music, and it became a widely known folk song. Many people love landscapes covered in heather. Heathland can be found throughout Europe, in Norway, Sweden, Great Britain and France. Heather also grows near the coasts of Portugal and Spain. One large area of heathland in Germany is known as the “Lüneburger Heide”. Perhaps we love heathland landscapes in particular because, from late summer through autumn, they are carpeted with beautiful blooming heather. There are more than 120 different kinds of heather. In our region, ling heather is especially common. It is a small shrub with many branches and narrow evergreen leaves. Ling heather grows slowly and can reach about 50 centimetres in height and live for up to 40 years. It prefers nutrient-poor, well-drained soils with little lime. When the plant gets too big and old, it becomes woody and soon dies. Ling heather blooms here from mid-August. Its many flowers range in colour from white and pink to deep purple. They contain plenty of nectar, attracting many bees, which make valuable honey from it. This has made heathland useful to people since ancient times. People could harvest honey there and use the wide-open areas as pasture for livestock, especially sheep. The Heidschnucke sheep breed still lives in the Lüneburger Heide today. These animals are particularly good at digesting the tough heather. In earlier times, people sometimes set fire to woodland so that heather and other plants would grow there afterwards, providing food for sheep, goats and cattle. About 200 years ago, extensive areas of heathland began to shrink rapidly. Many heathland farmers gave up the hard work and meagre livelihood on their small farms and moved to work in newly established factories. Then artificial fertiliser was invented, allowing heathland to be converted into farmland with better yields. But farmland can never be as beautiful to look at as a heathland in bloom. Today, heathland areas attract many visitors every year, especially in late summer. Heathland is also home to some rare animals and plants, such as juniper, the black grouse, the pipistrelle bat, the woodlark, the adder and the moor frog.