Plants & Nature

If you look around when you are out, you will find many interesting plants. Norway has several distinct habitats — forest, mountain, coast, wetland, cultural landscape — and each has its own plant community. In the high mountains the plants are vulnerable because they grow very slowly. In the forest there are both tiny and very tall plants. Along the coast the plants have adapted to salt, sea spray and flooding.

Habitats in Norway

A habitat is an area that is fairly uniform ecologically — in soil, temperature, precipitation, and which species live there. Even though we divide nature up, everything is connected.

Forest

Norway is one of the most forested countries in Europe. The forest type varies a great deal:

• Spruce forest — typical in Østlandet, Trøndelag, inner Vestlandet
• Pine forest — the coast, mountain forest and drier areas
• Birch forest — near the mountains, especially in the mountain-birch belt (~700–1100 m)
• Broadleaf deciduous forest — rarer, oak, lime, ash, hazel — Sørlandet and Vestlandet

The plant life in the forest is rich and varies with soil moisture and access to light. Bilberry, lingonberry, heather, spruce seedlings, dry moss and forest-floor species are classics.

Plants — all articles →

The mountains

Above the tree line (varies from ~600 m in the north to ~1200 m in the south) lie the low-arctic and alpine zones. The plants here are small, slow-growing, and extremely vulnerable to trampling. Lichen can need 20–50 years to grow back after damage.

Classics: crowberry, stiff sedge, alpine woodrush, dwarf birch, moss campion, sundew, cloudberry.

Plants — all articles → (many species are documented in the category)

Coast

The coastal vegetation tolerates salt, sea spray and flooding. The plants often have a thick leaf layer with wax to hold on to water, or special salt-excretion mechanisms.

Classics: wrack, kelp, sea kale, sea onion, sea campion. On the salt meadows: salt-tolerant species such as sennegrass, saltmarsh bulrush, sea sandwort.

Lakes, watercourses and bog

Aquatic plants, marsh vegetation, bog species:

• Sphagnum moss (peat moss) — builds up bog over thousands of years, an important CO₂ store
• Sundew — a carnivorous plant that lives on insects
• Pondweed, water lily — aquatic vegetation
• Stinging nettle, meadowsweet, lady’s mantle — damp areas

Svalbard

Conditions all of its own: arctic climate, permafrost, short growing season. The plants are adapted to survive with 8–9 months under snow and 3–4 months of growth. Many are small, often cushion-shaped to minimise wind loss.

Cultural landscape

Grazing areas, old farm landscapes, hay meadows. Many of Norway’s most species-rich areas are shaped by human use — these plant communities depend on people continuing to use the land. When the haymaking or grazing use disappears, the plant community disappears too.

Everything is connected — the food web

Almost all animals depend on plants:

Cone → squirrel → fox

But the reality is more complicated. The squirrel eats cones from many tree species, plus nuts, fungi, and occasionally eggs and chicks. The fox does not only eat squirrels — also mice, birds, eggs, fruit, berries.

What we get is a food web — complex connections in which each species affects many others. Changes in one part of the web can send ripple effects through the whole system.

More about animals and tracks →

Vulnerability and protection

Plants in the mountains, and lichen in particular, are vulnerable to human impact. Trampling by many walkers on the same path can destroy plant communities for decades.

Practical considerations:

• Stay on the path where possible
• Do not gather large quantities — allemannsretten (the right to roam) is for “personal use”
• Avoid rare species — many are protected
• In protected areas the whole plant life is often protected, including dead shrubs and trees

The Outdoor Recreation Act (friluftsloven) and allemannsretten → · Sustainability →

Food from nature

Many wild plants and fungi are edible — and a large part of the Norwegian harvesting tradition. But:

• Fungi: learn one species at a time. Confusing them with poisonous ones (red fly agaric, white fly agaric, green fly agaric) can be fatal.
• Wild plants: stinging nettle, ramsons, sorrel, lady’s mantle — all good and easy to learn
• Berries: bilberry, lingonberry, cloudberry, crowberry — the classics

Food from nature — fungi → · Food from nature — wild plants → · Historical use of useful plants →

Learning plants

Practical aids:

• Norsk botanisk forening (botanisk.no) — field guides, courses
• Artsdatabanken (artsdatabanken.no) — full overview of Norwegian species
• Plantenett and similar apps for field ID
• NRK Natur and Norsk natur for visual introductions

For learning in the field: bring a hand lens and a field guide. Learn one plant at a time, sit down with it, feel the leaves and stem, smell the sap of a broken stem (carefully — some are poisonous).

Learn more

• Food from nature — fungi
• Food from nature — wild plants
• Learn more about plants

See all plant articles →

---

Text: Snuitide (2022), revised 2026.

Key resources: Artsdatabanken · Norsk botanisk forening · Norsk institutt for naturforskning (NINA)