A pleasant variation! 😊🌾🌼

🌳🌾🍎🏡 Right in the heart of Germany lies a hidden dune landscape. It’s a striking and unexpected contrast to the typical surroundings of meadows, forests, fields, and traditional orchard grasslands.

🧭🦬🌬 The Schwanheim Dune is a remarkable natural monument in the western part of Frankfurt am Main. It was formed around 10,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age, when strong winds blew sand from the dried-out bed of the River Main and piled it into dunes. Such inland dunes, located far from any coastline, are rare – unlike the more common coastal dunes found in northern Germany.

🌲🪵🏰 Originally, the dune was covered by forest, but in the Middle Ages, large areas were cleared for farming and intensively logged for timber. As a result, the sandy soil was exposed to wind and erosion. Without protective vegetation, the sand began to drift and posed a threat to nearby settlements and farmland. To stabilize the area, pine trees were planted – many of which still shape parts of the landscape today.

🌾🦟🌿 Despite these changes, a portion of the open sandy terrain remained – providing habitat for rare, specialized plants and animals adapted to dry, nutrient-poor conditions. Today, the Schwanheim Dune is a protected natural area and a valuable ecological refuge.

🌼🌸🏵 Walking along the boardwalk, I came across beautiful wildflowers such as St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum), viper’s bugloss (Echium vulgare), and the evening-primrose (Oenothera biennis). Grey hair-grass (Corynephorus canescens) is also typical of this dry dune environment. While it is widespread in the many dune landscapes of northern Germany, the species is considered endangered in the state of Hesse.

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