Peat moss
Sphagnum
The true builder of raised bogs: peat mosses hold many times their own weight in water, acidify their surroundings and keep growing at the top while the lower parts die off and become peat.
Photo: Gisela Oden-Behrendt
Hamanns Sumpf · Bad Bramstedt
Nature in the moor
Come and discover Hamanns Sumpf! Among peat moss, cottongrass and downy birches, the carnivorous sundew glows in summer – and with a little luck you may spot a grass snake. Experience a piece of nature that has become rare.
How a moor forms
A moor forms wherever the ground stays wet all year round. Without oxygen, dead plants never fully decompose – they pile up and, over centuries, turn into peat. A living moor grows by only about one millimetre a year.
There are two basic types:
- Fens are fed by groundwater, springs or rivers. They are relatively rich in nutrients and often develop from silting lakes and ponds – just like the Hamanns Sumpf moorland on our railway, which is estimated to be around 9,000 years old.
- Raised bogs receive water from rain alone. They are very poor in nutrients and acidic; here, peat mosses slowly grow up above the groundwater level.
- ≈ 1 mmof peat a moor grows per year
- ≈ 3 %of the Earth’s land surface is peatland
- ≈ ⅓of all soil carbon is stored in peatlands
- > 90 %of Germany’s moors have been drained
Plants – masters of survival in the wet
Anything that wants to grow in a moor has to cope with wetness, acidity and few nutrients.
Sundew
Drosera
This small carnivorous plant catches insects with sticky glandular hairs – its way of making up for the lack of nitrogen in the moor.
Photo: Christian Stockmar / OAKB, 2020
Cottongrass
Eriophorum angustifolium
In early summer its white seed heads shine like cotton balls above the wet moorland.
Photo: Franz Xaver, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Cross-leaved heath
Erica tetralix
Its pink, bell-shaped flowers appear in summer on damp, acidic soil at the edge of the moor – an important food source for insects.
Photo: Christian Fischer, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Downy birch
Betula pubescens
It copes with wet feet better than most trees and often grows at the edges of moors and in swamp woodland.
Photo: Elke Freese, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Animals – rare and specialised
Many moorland species are on the Red List. With a little luck and patience you can spot them.
Grass snake
Natrix natrix
This harmless snake is easy to recognise by the pale, crescent-shaped markings behind its head. It is an excellent swimmer and hunts mainly frogs, toads and fish – you can spot it in our moor, too.
Photo: Christian Stockmar / OAKB, 2020
Adder
Vipera berus
This shy venomous snake with its zigzag band likes to bask at the edges of moors. It flees if left alone – please keep your distance.
Photo: Piet Spaans, CC BY-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons
Large white-faced darter
Leucorrhinia pectoralis
This rare dragonfly lives at moorland ponds and is strictly protected throughout Europe.
Photo: Algirdas, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
Moors and the climate
Intact moors are the most effective carbon stores on land. When they are drained, air reaches the peat: it decomposes and the stored carbon escapes as carbon dioxide. Drained moors are therefore among the major sources of greenhouse gases in Germany.
Rewetting moors is an important contribution to climate protection – and good for biodiversity and the water balance. In Hamanns Sumpf, too, healing peat was extracted for moor baths for almost fifty years; read more on our history page.
Photo credits
The photos of plants and animals from our moor were taken by the OAKB and its photographers. The other photos come from Wikimedia Commons, are published under free licences and show moors, plants and animals in general – not our own moorland.
- Sundew in the moor – Photo: Christian Stockmar / OAKB
- Peat moss (Sphagnum) – Photo: Gisela Oden-Behrendt
- Sundew (Drosera) – Photo: Christian Stockmar / OAKB, 2020
- Cottongrass (Eriophorum angustifolium) – Photo: Franz Xaver, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Cross-leaved heath (Erica tetralix) – Photo: Christian Fischer, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Downy birch (Betula pubescens) – Photo: Elke Freese, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Grass snake (Natrix natrix) – Photo: Christian Stockmar / OAKB, 2020
- Adder (Vipera berus) – Photo: Piet Spaans, CC BY-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons
- Large white-faced darter (Leucorrhinia pectoralis) – Photo: Algirdas, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons