Grünberg in der Gemeinde Frankenburg

Extreme locations favour plants with extreme strategies. A good example of this is the Grünberg in Frankenburg am Hausruck with its extremely barren subsoil of pale sand. Where otherwise hardly any trees would grow, the red pine feels right at home.

The red pine forest on the Grünberg is a botanical speciality of the first order. This is because the undemanding pine species is otherwise only found very sporadically in Upper Austria. The humus layer of the soil here is extremely thin in places. And yet the red pines are not the only survivors that have colonised the area. Broom heather, eagle's-foot and pipe grass grow here and in some places there are even bog-like patches of peat moss. The Grünberg is accessible via a "botanical hiking trail", which starts in the centre of Frankenburg.