Punkaharju

I spent five days in Punkaharju, Savonlinna and walked around the esker taking photos of plants, insects and the landscape. Take my identification of insects with a grain of salt. I often use Google Lens to start and browse closely related species to make sure I’m at least somewhat in the right direction.

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Plants

I saw alpine milkvetch (Astragalus alpinus). As its name suggests, it grows in the fells of Lapland, but also in the eskers of Southern Finland where it has stayed since the ice age. Distribution map in Finland in The Finnish Plant Atlas.

Field locoweed (Oxytropis campestris). In the second photo, all the green between the road and the forest floor is locoweed.

Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia). In the second photo, a flower with more lobes than usual.

Lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) and a rust fungus, blueberry witches’ broom (Thekopsora goeppertiana).

Spiky bog-moss (Sphagnum squarrosum).

Double-flowered meadow buttercup (Ranunculus acris) which grew on the side of the road.

White wood-rush (Luzula luzuloides), introduced in Finland in the 19th century. I hadn’t seen this rush before.

In less than 20 hectares and in half an hour, I saw six of the seven Finnish wintergreen species (as defined by having the word “talvikki” in their Finnish name). Only the round-leaved wintergreen was missing.
Common wintergreen (Pyrola minor), intermediate wintergreen (Pyrola media), greenflowered wintergreen (Pyrola chlorantha), sidebells wintergreen (Orthilia secunda), umbellate wintergreen (Chimaphila umbellata), one-flowered wintergreen (Moneses uniflora).

Tufted vetch (Vicia cracca) and wall lettuce (Lactuca muralis).

Ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria). It smelled very nice when the sun was shining and ground elder was growing densely like this.

Imperforate St John’s-wort (Hypericum maculatum) and spotted cat’s-ear (Hypochaeris maculata).

Creeping lady’s-tresses (Goodyera repens) before blooming. I like this little orchid.

Insects

A geometer moth (Scopula?, Cabera?).

Lesser marbled fritillary (Brenthis ino) and large skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus).

A red-necked footman (Atolmis rubricollis) was in the lake. I took it to dry land with a stick.

Tobacco-coloured longhorn beetle (Alosterna tabacicolor), black-striped longhorn beetle (Stenurella melanura) and four-banded longhorn beetle (Leptura quadrifasciata).

A false blister beetle (Chrysanthia geniculata) on an oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) flower head and a horsefly (Hybomitra sp.)

Eurasian bee beetle (Trichius fasciatus) and a yellow-faced bee (apparently Hylaeus confusus).

Larva of a sawfly (Symphyta) and larvae of the leaf beetle Plagiosterna aenea on the leaf of common alder.

There were a lot of damselflies and dragonflies in the area.

Northern damselfly (Coenagrion hastulatum). In the second photo, the blue one is the male and the green one is the female.

Red-eyed damselfly (Erythromma najas) and blue-tailed damselfly (Ischnura elegans). In the first photo, there are also water-lily beetle (Galerucella nymphaeae) larvae on the leaves of yellow water-lily.

White-faced darter (Leucorrhinia dubia) and lilypad whiteface (Leucorrhinia caudalis).

Four-spotted chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) and black-tailed skimmer (Orthetrum cancellatum). Despite its Finnish name (“blue sea dragonfly”), it has started to spread inland, and in the Savonlinna area it has established populations.

A mayfly (Ephemeroptera) and probably the pit trap of an antlion (Myrmeleon formicarius) larva. There were several such pits. I don’t know if other insects make them, so this is just an assumption.

Other animals

Ash-black slug (Limax cinereoniger) and grass snake (Natrix natrix). The snake had unfortunately been hit by a car.

A stretch spider (Tetragnatha sp.) and apparently turf running spider (Philodromus cespitum).

The chicks of a hazel grouse (Tetrastes bonasia). The mother was there too, but I couldn’t get a photo of it. They flew quite well for their age.

Lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus) and common raven (Corvus corax).

Landscape

The road on top of the esker, and a milestone.

Hynninsaari island. I went there just after rain and my shoes became soaking wet, but luckily they got dry enough for the next day.

A smoking area at Kuikonniemi war historical site, where the ashtray was made out of a fire extinguisher.

Kuikonniemi cape.

A dugout where it wasn’t allowed to go inside because of collapse risk.

Trenches. They were renovated in the 1990s and 2010s, but they were still in quite bad shape for the most part. One stretch was in such a good condition that it was possible to go in.

A small wet bog in Mustaniemi cape, and a beach where I swam once. Other times I swam on the public beach on the other side of the road.

A water tower in central Punkaharju, and Potkusalmi bridge.

Valkialampi pond from the esker road, and a monument for the Finnish national poet, Runeberg, on the highest point of the esker. Runeberg visited Punkaharju twice in the summer of 1838.

Pususilta (“kissing bridge”) and a path with stone walls.

View from the shore.

Potkusalmi bridge that leads to Vaahersalo island, and view from the bridge. The bridge was originally built in Harjavalta on the river Kokemäenjoki in 1939, but when they started to build a new bridge, the old one was disassembled in 1982 and moved to Punkaharju.

In Vaahersalo at the end of someone’s driveway there were the coat of arms of Finland and an old motorcycle.