Finland: Political System
Not least the two attacks on young men in Finnish schools – the last attack was in September 2008 with 11 deaths (including the perpetrator who killed himself) – are now drawing attention to the question of the causes of such acts of violence. See AbbreviationFinder for more information about Finland politics, and acronyms as well.
In hardly any other European country is the gap between the “cultures” of rural and urban populations as great as in Finland. In the Finnish province – with high unemployment – there is a culture of masculinity and violence that is otherwise almost unknown in Northern Europe. The above-average alcoholism also contributes to brutalizing people! Extreme acts of violence and fights by lonely and frustrated young men repeatedly occur in the country’s smaller villages. After the USA and Yemen, Finland has the highest density of firearms in the world. The suicide rate in rural areas is extremely high and the murder rate is seven to eight times higher than in Germany, for example.
Form of government
According to COMPUTERMINUS.COM, Finland is a parliamentary democracy. At the head of the state is a president who is elected directly by the people every six years. Re-election is only possible one more time. The government must have the confidence of Parliament (Eduskunta). The parliament has 200 members who are elected every four years in general, equal and free elections.
The official name of the country is:
| Republic of Finland/Suomen Tasavalta |
National anthem
The national anthem of Finland was written by the Finnish national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804-1877) and set to music by Fredrik Pacius (1809-1891). It was performed for the first time in 1848 by students who celebrated “Flora Day” on May 13th on a meadow belonging to the Kumtähti manor house. The same melody also serves as the national anthem in Estonia
| In Finnish | In Swedish | In English translation |
| Oi maamme, Suomi, synnyinmaa!Soi sana kultainen!
Egg laaksoa, egg kukkulaa, egg vettä rantaa rakkaampaa kuin kotimaa taä pohjoinen. Maa kallis isien. Sun kukoistukses kuorestaan kerrankin puhkeaa; Much ‘lempemme saa nousemaan sun toivos, riemus loistossaan, ja kerran laulus, synnyinmaa korkeemman kaiun saa. |
Vårt land, vårt land, vårt fosterland,ljud högt, o dyra ord!
Ej lyfts en Höjd mot himlens rand, ej sänks en dal, ej sköljs en strand, mer älskad än vår bygd i nord, än våra fäders jord! Din blomning, sluten än i knopp, Skall mogna ur sitt tvång; Se, ur vår kärlek skall gå opp Ditt ljus, din glans, din fröjd, ditt hopp. Ochre klinga skall en gång Vår fosterländska sång. |
O home, home, our country;Sound loud, you dear word!
No land as far as the edge of the sky. No country with mountains and valleys and beaches is loved more than our north, Here our fathers’ refuge. Once your blossom struggles to break free, ripe from the bud compulsion. Yes, once out of our love, go to your hope, bright and big. And our country song resounds in horns. |
National flag
Based on flag descriptions by Countryaah.com, the national flag (national flag) of Finland shows a blue Scandinavian cross on a white background, which is also popularly known as the blue cross flag. It was legally introduced as the official symbol of Finland on May 29, 1918.
- Check top-mba-universities for public holidays, sports events, UNESCO world heritage sites and major places to visit in Finland.
Finland: Known People
Architects and builders
Eliel Saarinen (1873-1950)
Eliel Saarinen was born on August 20, 1873 in Rantasalmi. This Finnish architect was known for his art nouveau works. For example, he built Helsinki Central Station (Rautatieasema) in 1919 and the National Museum of Finland (Kansallismuseo) in Helsinki in 1911. He had died on July 1, 1950 in Bloomfield Hills Oakland County, Michigan.
Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (1898-1976)
Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto was born on February 3, 1898 in Kuortane.
Aalto was an architect and designer and became famous for his special concepts in the field of organic construction.
He planned and began the construction of the opera house in Essen, which was not completed until after his death in 1988. Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto died on May 11, 1976 in Helsinki.
Aino Aalto (1894-1949)
Aino Aalto, née Mandelin, was born in Helsinki on January 25, 1894. The architect and designer was married to the architect Alvar Aalto. In 1932 she won a design competition with the Aino Aalto glasses, which also received the gold medal at the Triennale in Milan in 1936. In 1935, the Artek interior design company was founded to sell its furniture, textiles and glass. She died on January 13, 1949 in her native Helsinki.
Musicians and composers
Eläkeläiset
Eläkeläiset (The Pensioners) is a Humppa band – a type of foxtrot – founded in 1993 from Joensuu in eastern Finland, which mostly plays cover versions, i.e. interpretations of other well-known pop and rock music.
HIM
HIM (His Infernal Majesty), which was founded in Helsinki in 1991 and existed until 2017 and is attributed to Dark Rock.
Leningrad Cowboys
The Leningrad Cowboys play a mixture of cover versions of well-known pop and rock songs as well as Russian folk songs. The band was an invention of the Finnish film director Aki Kaurismäki together with Sakke Järvenpää and Mato Valtonen, members of the Finnish comedy rock band Sleepy Sleepers. The three of them formed the band together in a bar in 1986 as a joke about the crumbling power of the Soviet Union. In the beginning it was a “fictional band” that the Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki had invented for his film Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989) and consisted mainly of the members of the Sleepy Sleepers, which had existed since 1975.
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Jean Sibelius was born on December 8, 1865 in Hämeenlinna in southern Finland. This late Romantic and Modern composer is probably the most famous Finnish composer to date. His violin concerto in Opus 47 is particularly beautiful. Sibelius died on September 20, 1957 in Järvenpää near Helsinki.
Tarja Turunen (born 1977)
Her full name is Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen Cabuli. She was born on August 17, 1977 in Kitee in the southeast of the country. She is a soprano and songwriter. Together with Tuomas Holopainen and Emppu Vuorinen she founded the band “Nightwish” in 1996, to which she belonged until the end of 2005. Since she was trained as a classical singer, she sings her pieces – including heavy metal – in the classical style. After she left the band in 2005, she usually appears as a soloist under “Tarja”.
The Rasmus
The four-member group “The Rasmus” are an alternative rock band. The band was formed in Finland in 1994. Here in Germany the band became known in 2003 with the song “In the Shadows”.
Politician
Esko Aho (born 1954)
Esko Aho was born on May 20, 1954 in Veteli in the west of the country. He was Prime Minister of Finland from 1991 to 1995
Tarja Halonen (born 1943) Halonen, born
on December 24, 1943 in Helsinki by the Finnish Social Democrats, was Finland’s 11th head of state from March 1, 2000 to March 1, 2012 and the first woman in this office. She succeeded Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari in the office.
Harri Hermanni Holkeri (1937-2011)
Harri Hermanni Holkeri was born on January 6, 1937 in Oripää in southwest Finland. He was Prime Minister of Finland from 1987 to 1991. Harri Hermanni Holkeri died on August 7, 2011 in Helsinki.
Anneli Tuulikki Jäätteenmäki (born 1955)
Anneli Tuulikki Jäätteenmäki was born on February 11, 1955 in Lapua in the west of the country. She was the first Finnish Prime Minister and was in office from April 17 to June 18, 2003. In addition, she was chairman of the Finnish Center Party (Suomen Keskusta).
Urho Kaleva Kekkonen (1900-1986)
Urho Kaleva Kekkonen was born on September 3, 1900 in Pielavesi in central Finland. He served as Prime Minister of Finland from 1950 to 1956 and was then President of the country from 1956 to 1981. Kekkonen died on August 31, 1986 in Helsinki.
Mauno Henrik Koivisto (born 1923)
Mauno Henrik Koivisto was born on November 25, 1923 in Turku. He served as the ninth Finnish President from 1982 to 1994. Koivisto died on May 12, 2017 in Helsinki.
Juho Kusti Paasikivi (1870-1956)
Juho Kusti Paasikivi was born on November 27, 1870 in what is now Hämeenkoski in southern Finland. He served as the Finnish President from 1946 to 1956. Before that he was Finnish ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1941 and served as Finnish head of government from 1944 to 1946. During his time as President, the Finnish-Soviet Treaty was signed in 1948, which subsequently led to limited sovereignty for Finland. Paasikivi died on December 14, 1956 in Helsinki.
Taisto Kalevi Sorsa (1930-2004)
Taisto Kalevi Sorsa was born on December 21, 1930 in Keuruu in central Finland. He was Prime Minister of Finland for ten years in four different governments: 1972-1975, 1977-1979, 1982-1983 and 1983-1987. Sorsa died on January 16, 2004 in Helsinki.
Matti Taneli Vanhanen (born 1955)
Matti Taneli Vanhanen was born on November 4, 1955 in Jyväskylä. He was Prime Minister of Finland from 2003 to 2010. Since 1975 he has been a member of the Finnish Center Party (Suomen Keskusta). He was its deputy chairman in 2000 and its chairman from October 2003 to June 2010.
Poet and writer
Aleksis Kivi (1834-1872)
Aleksis Kivi was born on October 10, 1834 in Nurmijärvi in southern Finland. He was a Finnish national writer. His most famous novel is called “The Seven Brothers”. Aleksis Kivi died on December 31, 1872 in Tuusula in the south of the country
Elias Lönnrot (1802-1884)
Elias Lönnrot was born on April 9, 1802 in Sammatti in the south of the country. He was a philologist, folklorist, doctor, and botanist. He became famous through the national epic Kalevala. Elias Lönnrot died on March 19, 1884 in his hometown of Sammatti.
Arto Paaslinna (born 1942)
Arto Paaslinna was born on October 5, 2018 in Espoo in the south of Finland. Paaslinna is one of the most famous writers in Finland and has received numerous literary prizes. Many of his novels were made into films.
Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804-1877)
Johan Ludvig Runeberg was born on February 7, 1804 in Jakobstad on the Gulf of Bothnia in western Finland. He is considered the national poet of Finland. The most famous work by Runeberg is “Sagen des Fähnrichs Stahl”.
Runeberg died on May 6, 1877 in Porvoo in the south of the country.
Athlete
Janne Ahonen (born 1977)
ski jumper. Janne Ahonen was born on May 11, 1977 in Lathi in south-east Finland. In 1997 he became world champion on the small hill. With the Finnish team he became world champion in 1995, 1997 and 2003, and at the 2002 Winter Olympics he won the silver medal with the team.
In 1999, 2003 and 2005 he won the prestigious Four Hills Tournament as well as the overall World Cup in 2004 and 2005. Ahonen is married and Janne Ahonen, who has two sons. He is also successful in drag racing, for example he was Nordic champion in August 2004 with the Eagle Racing Team. Drag racing uses vehicles with a few thousand horsepower.
Mika Pauli Häkkinen (born 1968)
Mika Pauli Häkkinen was born on September 28, 1968 in Vantaa in southern Finland. He was a Formula 1 racing driver and world champion from 1998 and 1999 as well as vice world champion in 2000. From 1998 to 2008 he was married to Erja Honkanen, a Finnish TV journalist, with whom he has two children. In January 2017 he married his longtime partner Marketa Kromatova, with whom he has three other children.
Tommi Mäkinen (born 1964)
rally driver. Tommi Mäkinen was born on June 26th in Puuppola in the former municipality of Jyväskylä. He has been world rally champion four times, won the Monte Carlo Rally four times and won the Finnish NESTE rally five times.
Paavo Nurmi (1897-1973)
athlete. Paavo Nurmi was born in Turku on June 13, 1897. To this day, he is considered one of the most successful athletes in the world, having won nine gold and three silver medals at the Olympic Games between 1920 and 1928. By 1931 he had achieved a total of 24 world records in the middle distance. Nurmi died on October 2, 1973 in Helsinki.
Kimi Matias Raikkonen (born 1979)
racing car driver. Kimi Matias Raikkonen was a Formula 1 racing driver and world champion from 2007. He was also twice vice world champion. He was married to former Finnish model Jenni Dahlman from 2004 to 2013. Raikkonen has been in a relationship with the flight attendant Minttu Virtanen since 2013, with whom he has a son (born 2015) and a daughter (born 2017), who were married in Italy in August 2016.
Theologians and philosophers
Mikael Agricola (around 1509-1557)
Mikael Agricola was born around 1509 in Pernaja on the south coast of Finland. He was a theologian and reformer and is also considered the father of the Finnish literary language. Agricola was on April 9, 1557 in Uusikirkko, which fell to the Soviet Union in 1944,
Lauri Ingman (1868-1934) died a
theologian and politician. Lauri Ingman was born on June 30, 1868 in Teuva in the west of the country. From 1916 to 1930 he was Professor of Practical Theology at the University of Helsinki. In the 1920s he was Minister of Education in four governments.
From November 1918 to April 1919 and from May 1924 to March 1925 he was also Prime Minister of Finland.
In 1930 he became Archbishop of Finland in Turku. Lauri Ingman died in Turku on October 25, 1934.
Eino Kaila (1890-1958)
philosopher and psychologist. Eino Kaila was born on August 9, 1890 in Alajärvi in western Finland. He was considered a representative of the logical empiricism described by Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) and Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947). He died on July 31, 1958 in Kirkkonummi in the south of the country.
Antti Jaakko Pietilä (1878-1932)
Antti Jaakko Pietilä was born on March 9, 1878 in Oulujoki in western central Finland. He was an eminent Finnish theologian. He was assistant for theological morality from 1911 to 1919 and then professor for dogmatics from 1919 until his death. Pietilä died on September 9, 1932 in Helsinki.
Georg Gustaf Rosenquist (1855-1931)
Georg Gustaf Rosenquist was born on September 13, 1855 in Lapinjärvi in southern Finland. He was an important Finnish theologian and religious philosopher. He was also a member of the Finnish Parliament from 1907 to 1919. Rosenquist died on February 12, 1931 in Helsinki.
Georg Henrik von Wright ( 1916-2003)
Georg Henrik von Wright was born on June 14, 1916 in Helsinki. He was a Finnish philosopher and logician who for the past 20 years had been particularly concerned with questions of moral philosophy. His contribution, Myten om framsteget (The Myth of Progress), published in 1993 is well known. Von Wright died on June 16, 2003 in Helsinki, the city of his birth
Nobel Prize Winner
Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari (born 1937)
Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari was born on June 23, 1937 in Viipuri in what is now Vyborg, Russia. Ahtisaari received the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize for his many years of service as a peacemaker. After completing his studies, he entered the diplomatic service and in 1979 became the ambassador of Finland to Tanzania. In 1984 he became Under-Secretary-General of the UN and was responsible for its administration. After a few stops in between, he was elected the country’s 10th President in 1994 as a candidate for Finland’s Social Democrats. After his term in office ended in 2000, he did not run again. Incidentally, on March 1, 2000, his successor was Tarja Halonen from the Finnish Social Democrats. By the way, she was re-elected on January 29, 2006 for a second six-year term – i.e. until 2012. After retiring from his presidency in 2005, he worked to end the civil war in the Indonesian province of “Aceh”. And from February 2006 he led negotiations on the future status of the Serbian province of Kosovo, which was then under UN administration. Furthermore, in October 2007 he was one of the co-founders of the “European Council for Foreign Relations (ECFR)”
Bengt Robert Holmström (born 1949)
Bengt Robert Holmström was born on April 18, 1949 in Helsinki. He received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2016 together with the American Oliver Simon D’Arcy Hart, who was born in London in 1948, for their contributions to contract theory.
He is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He had studied mathematics, physics and statistics, which he completed with a bachelor’s degree in Helsinki. He then studied at Stanford University in California and graduated in 1975 with a master’s degree and three years later he did his doctorate here. Holmström then went on to teach for a year. In 1979 he returned to the USA, where he taught business administration first as a lecturer and from 1980 as an associate professor.
In 1983 he moved to Yale University as Professor of Economics and Organization and in 1997 became Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Holmström was also a board member of Nokia from 1999 to 2012.
Frans Eemil Sillanpää (1888-1964)
Writer. Frans Eemil Sillanpää was born on September 16, 1888 in Kierikkala in the municipality of Hämeenkyrö in southwest Finland. In 1939 he had received the Nobel Prize for Literature “for the profound understanding and the exquisite art of style with which he depicts peasant life and the nature of his homeland in their mutual context”. Sillanpää died on June 3, 1964 in Helsinki.
More people
Wäinö Aaltonen (1894-1966)
sculptor. Wäinö Aaltonen was born on March 8, 1894 in Marttila in southern Finland. To this day he is considered one of the most famous sculptors in Finland. But in addition to monuments and portrait busts, he also created reliefs, landscape drawings and oil paintings.
Aaltonen died on May 30, 1966 in Helsinki.
Antti Amatus Aarne (1867-1925)
Antti Amatus Aarne was born on March 5, 1867 in Pori in southwest Finland. He was a Finnish fairy tale researcher who, among other things, published a typology of fairy tales in 1910 under the title “Directory of fairy tale types with the help of experts”.
He died on February 5, 1925 in Helsinki.
Aki Kaurismäki (born 1957)
Aki Kaurismäki was born on April 4, 1957 in Orimattila in southern Finland. As a director he had received numerous awards. In 1989 he emigrated to Portugal with his wife. He shot his last film, The Other Side of Hope, in 2017. Known include Crime and Punishment from 1983, Leningrad Cowboys Go America from 1989, The Girl from the Match Factory from 1990, Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses from 1994 or The Man Without a Past from 2002 and Le Havre from 2011.
Alexander von Nordmann (1803-1866)
Alexander von Nordmann was born on May 24, 1803 in Ruotsinsalmi near Kymi in southeastern Finland.
In 1838, the zoologist and botanist Normann discovered a hitherto unknown species of fir in what is now Georgia, which in 1842 was named Nordmann fir in his honor and is now one of the best-selling Christmas trees. He died on June 25, 1866 in Turku.
Finland: animals
Mammals
The most famous mammal in Finland is the elk. They can be found almost everywhere, and although they are hunted regularly, the populations remain stable. Motorists in particular should open their eyes, collisions with moose are not uncommon in Finland and have often led to numerous accidents.
Predators such as the brown bear, Eurasian lynx and wolves also live in Finland, and their populations continue to increase.
A specialty is the wolverine, which, like the other predators, is only seen in the rarest of cases. Some individuals live in the Finnish part of Lapland.
He belongs to the marten family and is in this with a length of 1 m and a weight of max. 35 kg the largest and heaviest representative. The shy mountain animal has a shaggy, dark brown fur, a long bushy tail and large paws, which make it much easier for him to walk through the snow. Wolverines live solitary and prefer to stay near water. In addition to carrion, its diet also includes berries and rodents. It doesn’t get its name because of its eating habits, but in all probability owes it to a translation error. The old Norse word “Fjellfräs” means something like “mountain hangover”.
Semi-domesticated reindeer live in the north and are only rounded up by their owners at slaughter time. The reindeer is about 2 m long and 1.25 m high and belongs to the deer family. Clothing is made from his very thick fur, which consists of air-filled hair, and he also serves as a meat supplier. The reindeer is the only species of deer in which both males and females have antlers. Its main diet includes lichens, which it exposes from the snow with its wide hooves, but they also eat leaves, bark and grass. In addition to Finland, it is also found in Greenland and in the tundras of Northern Eurasia and Canada.
The forest reindeer, on the other hand, has actually already been exterminated, but has returned to Finland from Russia.
However, it is far less common than its relative in the north.
Also typical residents of the north are mountain hares, arctic foxes and mountain lemings, who have achieved fame through the supposed “community suicide” during their mass migrations. In the south and west of Finland there are white-tailed deer introduced from America, which have settled in well here.
The Oulanka National Park has many small mammals such as otters, weasels, hares, pine martens and ermines. Deer and red foxes as well as badgers live in the southern mixed forests.
In the Saimaa Lake District lives the rare Saimaa ringed seal that has been saved from extinction and is the symbol of Finnish nature conservation. With currently around 270 individuals, the seal is still considered threatened.
Reptiles
The snake-like slow worm is one of the most widespread native reptiles. However, this is not a snake, but belongs to the lizards, and there to the sneak family. Your extremities are so strongly receded that they cannot be seen from the outside. However, their beginnings are visible in the skeleton.
Other features of the lizard include the closable eyelids and the lack of abdominal scales that help snakes move. The tail can also be thrown off in case of danger and distracts the enemy from the actual prey through independent movements. However, only a short part of the slow-worm grows back, not the entire tail.
Overall, it reaches a length of up to 50 cm, which can vary greatly due to the growing tail stub. The color is sand-gray to brown-black. The slow worm lives inconspicuously in cool stream valleys, forest clearings, hedges, meadows, embankments and the edge of the vineyards. Usually it hides under stone slabs or wooden boards. It can often be encountered after rain showers as it then leaves its hiding place to hunt nudibranchs, earthworms, insects and spiders.
Their enemies include hedgehogs, crows, other larger birds and also humans. The slow worm is widespread throughout Europe, and is also found in North Africa. The grass snake is found relatively often – especially near lakes, ponds or ponds. The only venomous snake found in the country is the adder.
Some representatives of the amphibians are the common toad as well as the common frog and the moor frog.
Birds
Frequently occurring birds on the coast are oystercatchers, herring gulls, redshanks and also rarities such as black guillemots, the black and white guillemots and razorbills.
Bird lovers will not be able to avoid paying a visit to the Finnish Lake District in southeastern Finland as it is a true paradise for birds of all species.
There are numerous species of geese and ducks, cranes and breeding birds such as the water rail, the reed warbler, the great crested grebe and the spotted moorhen.
The national bird of Finland is the whooper swan. The birds with the brilliant white plumage have a straight neck (in contrast to the mute swans) and are found mainly on the shallow lakes and slow-flowing waters of the tundra in northern Finland. In the mixed forests, the birds are more likely to be heard than seen.
The robin, the siskin and the graycatcher as well as the chaffinch and many different species of titmouse live here.
A number of birds of prey such as eagles, sparrowhawks, buzzards and owls also live here.
insects
Especially during the summer months it is difficult to protect yourself from such pests as mosquitoes near water. At this time of year they are common in the north in huge schools.
There are also flies, dragonflies, bumblebees, vests, bees and butterflies here.
Underwater world
The numerous lakes in Finland are very rich in fish, besides pike, salmon and trout, carp and char also cavort here. There are herring in the coastal waters. Mackerel, salmon, cod and herring also live
Finland: plants
Trees
Finland’s flora is based on the three vegetation zones mixed forest, boreal coniferous forest and mountain tundra (from south to north).
Forests cover around three quarters of the country, making Finland the most forested country in Europe.
There are mixed forests with deciduous trees on the southwest coast and in the south of the country.
Oaks, mountain ash, aspen, linden and beech grow here.
The most common tree species, however, are pine, spruce and birch in the north of the country, whereby the birch zone – an approximately 200 m long strip above the coniferous forest zone – is really unique. Of the approximately 200 different maple tree species, only the Norway maple (acer platanoides) grows in Finland.
In the fell landscape in the northeast are the mountain birches, which are related to the downy birch. The extreme north is almost treeless, with mountain ash, quivering aspen and willow still growing in the taiga.
Crops
In Finland’s forests, not only mushrooms, blueberries and lingonberries grow but also cloudberries, which are little known outside of Scandinavia. This plant, which is also often found in bog areas, becomes 10-25 cm high and first has red and later orange-yellow fruits. The cloudberries are mostly processed into jam.
In addition to Scandinavia, they also grow in northern Asia and northern North America.
In general, berry bushes are very widespread in Finland. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, as well as lingon and wild strawberries are particularly easy to find. Instead, you need good luck and a good eye with the arctic blackberry and the sea buckthorn bush, which prefers sunny locations. The birch is a crop with many uses. Their wood is used for house and furniture construction as well as for the construction of saunas, the tree bark is often used as roof covering and as a material for weaving baskets and the branches are very popular for use in saunas to promote blood circulation in the skin.
Agriculture is only practiced to a limited extent in Finland due to the cool climate, mainly cereals such as rye, oats and barley are grown, but potatoes and fruit trees are also cultivated.
Medicinal plants
The orange-red fruits of the sea buckthorn bush have a high content of vitamin C and are therefore often used in the form of juices to strengthen the immune system.
The leaves of the fever clover, which grows in bank areas and in swamp areas, contain bitter substances that are supposed to provide relief for stomach and intestinal complaints. The leaves are mainly processed into tea and then drunk. The bitter substances can also be found in many stomach bitters, which are supposed to facilitate digestion.
The fever clover is under nature protection, so picking wild plants is strictly prohibited.
Poisonous plants
The poisonous or intoxicating effect of the bogberry is controversial, as it is assumed that it is more caused by fungi, which can attack the berries. Despite the frequent fungal infestation, few berries can be eaten without hesitation.
Due to their blue color, however, the berries can easily be confused with those of the blueberry.
The main difference, however, is the light color of the pulp and the juice, which in blueberries are blue.
More plants
Since the extreme north is almost treeless, plants such as lichen, moss, dwarf shrub heather and heather as well as various types of berries such as blueberries, bilberries, lingonberries and crowberries dominate here.
The latter is a small dwarf shrub with all around leafy branches. From March to June, small black berries develop, which have a laxative effect when eaten raw. In Scandinavia they are often eaten as a compote.
The south of the country is the habitat of dwarf shrubs such as the inconspicuous seven star, the wood anemone, the lily of the valley as well as the lingon and blueberries.
High and Aapamoore dominate the north of Finland, and thus a typical bog vegetation has developed here.
Characteristic plants are the rosemary heather, cranberry, the Scheidige cottongrass and the carnivorous sundew. All sundew species are characterized by a sugary secretion secreting glands on special tentacles, which in turn are located on the leaves of the plant.
This secretion attracts insects that stick to the tentacles and eventually suffocate or die of exhaustion. Enzymes break down the dead insects and this gives the sundew the nutrients it needs to grow.
