Gotska Sandön National Park
Beach rye at Bredsand.Foto: Länsstyrelsen Gotland

Plant life

Although the island’s vegetation seems limited, there are close to 500 species of vascular plants on Gotska Sandön.

There is a dearth of species in the beach vegetation, where marram, sea lyme-grass and sand sedge are most prevalent. The pasque flower is common on the island. In the forest reindeer lichen, big red stem moss, heather, bilberry, bearberry and lingonberries predominate.

Here and there you can see red helleborine, dark red helleborine, marsh helleborine and thyme broomrape. There are more than 20 deciduous forest sections, and these have a large variety of plants, including more demanding woodland plants such as lily of the valley, two-leaved maianthemum, hepatica, bitter vetch, sweet woodruff and small cow-wheat as well as orchids such as the butterfly orchid and stately specimens of white helleborine.

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