rocky pine forest
Rocks and lichens
Capercaillies often conduct their mating display in sparse pine forest on rocky ground. Such forest has outcrops and boulders covered with carpets of woolly fringe-moss, Racomitrium lanuginosum and various species of lichens such as reindeer lichen, Cladonia rangiferina. In damp crevices with deep soil grow heather, grasses, lingonberries and acute-leaved bog-moss, Sphagnum acutifolium.
Pines and fire
The ground is dry and is often burned. The pine is very tolerant to fire and drought, and is therefore one of the most common tree species. Here and there, dead pines remain standing and many insects thrive in their wood – among them the red longhorn beetle, Anoplodera rubra.
