Meadows are traditional biotopes in Finland and during this summer we took a closer look at meadow plants in Seili. Proper equipment and careful planning are the basis of sampling plants. It’s wise to keep close to you at least a good plant identification guide and a sampling square (quadrat). Sometimes a magnifying glass is also necessary to check some small details.

Cover and density estimates are important parameters of changes in vegetation. This inventory also gave an opportunity to pause and admire the beauty of the plants, butterflies and other insects.

A quadrat is a plot used in ecology to isolate a standard unit of area for study of the distribution of an item over a large area

Common Moonwort (Botrychium lunaria)

Field Cow-wheat (Melampyrum arvense)

Text and photos: Jasmin Inkinen, Archipelago Research Institute’s preparator

This is a short version of the original Finnish blog post, see the original post here.

See also: Natural environments in Seili (part 1)