Medieval Monastery Gardens in Iceland and Norway

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Gardens at remote lighthouses along the Norwegian coast. A botanical project

Et fyrhageprosjekt ble startet i 2002 med den målsetting, så langt det lot seg gjøre, å dokumentere bruk av hageplanter på norske fyrstasjoner. I løpet av prosjektet ble data fra vel 80 av et totalt antall på 207 fyr innsamlet ved besøk, opplysninger i litteraturen og intervjuer av personer som hadde bodd på betjente fyr. Mens noen fyr hadde opparbeidet seg flekker og arealer til slåttemark og dyrkning av blant annet poteter, hadde andre ingen ting, eller ikke større enn knapt 0,5 m2, med plass til en potetplante eller noen gulrøtter. Sterk vind fra havet eller fra nord kunne medføre jorderosjon, og rent generelt har klimatiske forhold vært en begrensende faktor. Ettårige vekster, som vanlige grønnsaker, ble dyrket, for eksempel forskjellige kål (Brassica spp.), gulrot (Daucus carrota), forskjellige løksorter (Allium spp.) og redikk (Raphanus sativus). De er borte nå, men arter som luftløk (Allium cepa f. prolifera) og gressløk (A. schoenoprasum) holder seg i live. I sørlige områder er kirsebær (Prunus avium og P. cerasus), plommer (P. domestica), epler (Malus domestica) og pære (Pyrus communis) kjent og finnes fremdeles mange steder. Rips, solbær og stikkelsbær (Ribes spp.) ble dyrket, og har klart seg frem til i dag. Andre vekster som fremdeles fines gjenstående etter tidligere hagebruk, er bl.a. sitkagran (Picea sitkensis) og andre treslag plantet som le mot vind, og vier, bl.a. korgpil (Salix viminalis), brukt til fletting av teiner og kurver. Den kanskje mest livskraftige planten som er funnet på mange av fyrstasjonene er rabarbra (Rheum ×rhabarbarum) – nærmest et standard innslag fra sør i landet til helt i nord. Flere nytteplanter, og noen prydplanter, for det meste enfrøbladete løk- og knollvekster, har overlevd. Ofte er de eneste levende bevis på tidligere hagebruk på stedet. Antall hagevekster synes å øke fra nord mot sør, men vekstforholdene har de fleste steder vært ganske ekstreme

Medeltida klostergrunder på Island - vegetation och flora, kultur och reliktväxter, samtida växtnamn

Icelandic medieval monastic sites – vegetation and flora, cultural- and relict plants, contemporary plant-names The colonization of Iceland began in the late 9th century and in the year 1000 the Althing chose Christianity to replace paganism as the religion of the country. The bishopric of Skálholt was established in 1056 and Hólar in 1106. There are traces of twelve to fifteen monasteries, of which nine are recognized as having lasted for some time. Of these only Skriðuklaustur has been fully excavated, exhibiting a European building model. Viðeyjarklaustur and Kirkjubaejarklaustur have been partly excavated not revealing any specific monastic buildings as yet. Archaeobotanical investigations have only been undertaken on Viðey and at Skriðuklaustur. The exact localisation of the monastic buildings, or possible monastic cultivation. are only presumptions at all other places, as is the type of monastic building, whether traditional Icelandic farm type or continental monastery building type. The questions that this project seeks to answer are which cultivated plants on the whole, and garden plants in particular, were known and used in the medieval Icelandic monastic context, and whether it is possible to find medieval relict plants in connection with the Icelandic monastic sites. All monastic sites were surveyed for landscape and plants, and complete lists of the plants found are published in Bilaga 1. Medicinal, utility and ornamental plants, known in Iceland and abroad, have been recorded, but their status as true medieval monastic relict plants cannot be fully determined at this stage of research. The very special conditions in which a hitherto uninhabited island was colonized in some hundred years by people bringing and adapting their knowledge of farming, cultivating and using plants for both utility and pleasure led inevitably to a situation where common knowledge became integrated with the specific uses of plants and plant medicine in a monastic context. Many of the plants found today, such as Angelica, Alchemilla, Allium, Filipendula, Plantago or Sanguisorba have a medieval past as medicinal herbs. We cannot, however, establish for sure whether some of these plants’ properties were not common knowledge to the Icelanders of the Middle Ages but were specific monastic plants. The Icelandic monastic sites, as well as all Iceland, are today dominated by farming leaving little space for herbs to grow and survive. There are however traces of deliberate use and possibly cultivation of plants at Skriðuklaustur and Viðeyjarklaustur, although more archaeobotanical evidence from monastic sites is needed as well as an archeological search for traces of cultivation. This is required not only at these two sites but at all monastic sites in Iceland. Medieval plant-names tell us little since most of the medico-botanical literature are translations of the Dane Henrik Harpestræng’s works. The Icelandic laws, another source for plant-names, are heavily influenced by Norwegian law and therefore may only be used with caution for the documentation of Icelandic matters. Later historic plant-names, however, reveal many interesting details about the local use of some plants, although some of these names are loans from or translations of Scandinavian or German names and may not reveal anything about their local Icelandic use

Registrering og genetisk karakterisering av villeple i Norge

Villeple er en relativt sjelden art i Norge med spredt utbredelse. Den er antatt å hybridisere med hageeple siden man hos viltvoksende trær finner glidende overganger fra villeple til hageeple. I dette prosjektet har det blitt foretatt en omfattende kartlegging av villepleforekomstene i Norge. Gjennom feltarbeid på kryss og tvers i Norge har 678 forekomster av villeple, forvillet hageeple og deres hybrider blitt registrert, samlet inn og undersøkt morfologisk. Basert på denne kartleggingen og morfologiske undersøkelser har det blitt registrert 405 villepletrær og 249 hybridepletrær, resten har vært forvillede hageepler. DNA-undersøkelser av 267 trær viser et relativt godt samsvar med de morfologiske undersøkelsene. Vi finner likevel færre reine villepler basert på DNA-analyser enn basert på morfologi, noe som kan tyde på at hybridisering og tilbakekrysninger mellom hybrider og villeple, er mer omfattende enn det man ser basert på morfologiske undersøkelser. Det er med andre ord en høy andel hybridepler i Norge. En kombinasjon av morfologi og DNA-analyser ser ut til å være nødvendig for en sikker identifisering..

Alien species in Norway: results from quantitative ecological impact assessments

1. Due to globalisation, trade and transport, the spread of alien species is increasing dramatically. Some alien species become ecologically harmful by threatening native biota. This can lead to irreversible changes in local biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, and, ultimately, to biotic homogenisation. 2. We risk-assessed all alien plants, animals, fungi and algae, within certain delimitations, that are known to reproduce in Norway. Mainland Norway and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard plus Jan Mayen were treated as separate assessment areas. Assessments followed the Generic Ecological Impact Assessment of Alien Species (GEIAA) protocol, which uses a fully quantitative set of criteria. 3. A total of 1519 species were risk-assessed, of which 1183 were species reproducing in mainland Norway. Among these, 9% were assessed to have a severe impact, 7% high impact, 7% potentially high impact, and 49% low impact, whereas 29% had no known impact. In Svalbard, 16 alien species were reproducing, one of which with a severe impact. 4. The impact assessments also covered 319 so-called door-knockers, i.e. species that are likely to establish in Norway within 50 years, and 12 regionally alien species. Of the door-knockers, 8% and 10% were assessed to have a severe and high impact, respectively. 5. The impact category of most species was driven by negative interactions with native species, transformation of threatened ecosystems, or genetic contamination. The proportion of alien species with high or severe impact varied significantly across the different pathways of introduction, taxonomic groups, time of introduction, and the environments colonised, but not across continents of origin. 6. Given the large number of alien species reproducing in Norway and the preponderance of species with low impact, it is neither realistic nor necessary to eradicate all of them. Our results can guide management authorities in two ways. First, the use of quantitative assessment criteria facilitates the prioritisation of management resources across species. Second, the background information collected for each species, such as introduction pathways, area of occupancy and ecosystems affected, helps designing appropriate management measures

Alien species in Norway: results from quantitative ecological impact assessments

1. Due to globalisation, trade and transport, the spread of alien species is increasing dramatically. Some alien species become ecologically harmful by threatening native biota. This can lead to irreversible changes in local biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, and, ultimately, to biotic homogenisation. 2. We risk-assessed all alien plants, animals, fungi and algae, within certain delimitations, that are known to reproduce in Norway. Mainland Norway and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard plus Jan Mayen were treated as separate assessment areas. Assessments followed the Generic Ecological Impact Assessment of Alien Species (GEIAA) protocol, which uses a fully quantitative set of criteria. 3. A total of 1519 species were risk-assessed, of which 1183 were species reproducing in mainland Norway. Among these, 9% were assessed to have a severe impact, 7% high impact, 7% potentially high impact, and 49% low impact, whereas 29% had no known impact. In Svalbard, 16 alien species were reproducing, one of which with a severe impact. 4. The impact assessments also covered 319 so-called door-knockers, i.e. species that are likely to establish in Norway within 50 years, and 12 regionally alien species. Of the door-knockers, 8% and 10% were assessed to have a severe and high impact, respectively. 5. The impact category of most species was driven by negative interactions with native species, transformation of threatened ecosystems, or genetic contamination. The proportion of alien species with high or severe impact varied significantly across the different pathways of introduction, taxonomic groups, time of introduction, and the environments colonised, but not across continents of origin. 6. Given the large number of alien species reproducing in Norway and the preponderance of species with low impact, it is neither realistic nor necessary to eradicate all of them. Our results can guide management authorities in two ways. First, the use of quantitative assessment criteria facilitates the prioritisation of management resources across species. Second, the background information collected for each species, such as introduction pathways, area of occupancy and ecosystems affected, helps designing appropriate management measures