Plant life

The world’s oldest tree is a clonal spruce that has grown in the same place for 9,565 years. It took root just after the latest ice age and has survived, thanks to its ability to put out new rootsuckers. Upon investigation, remnants of wood have been found under the spruce that have been dated using the carbon 14 method.

The ground on the plateau is poor in nutrients. Here you will find mountain bearberry, blue heath, dwarf birch, mountain sorrel, highland saxifrage and Scheuchzer's cottongrass. Growth is more vigorous along the brooks and in the valleys where diabase appears, making the soil more fertile. Here you can find alpine blue-sow thistle, garden angelica and monk's-hood.

Fulufjället has not been grazed by reindeer for many years. Up on the mountain plateau there are thick carpets of lichens, primarily reindeer lichen and star-tipped reindeer lichen. In the bog you will find reindeer moss. This was used in nappies in the past because it absorbed more liquid than cotton. There are 395 different species of moss and 421 different species of lichen growing on Fulufjället!