Wartime Studies on the Flora in the Porajärvi-Paatene Area, Russian Karelia by the Late Jorma Soveri

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Language: English

One of the botanical excursions to occupied Russian Karelia made by Finnish botanists during the war period 1941-44 was that of Jorma Soveri and Reino Kalliola in July-August 1942 to the Porajärvi (Porosozero)-Paatene (Padany) area. The area belongs mainly to the biogeographical province of Karelia onegensis, minor parts belonging to Karelia pomorica occidentalis. The most up-to-date survey of the flora in the area has thus far been from the 1870'ies. In the west the area is oligotrophic and mostly covered by coniferous forests. In the east, where the bedrock is more basic and richer in nutrients, the general eutrophic nature of Karelia onegensis is much more evident: demanding and calciphilous plant species, herb-rich forests, rich fens and meadows are relatively common. Soveri and Kalliola studied mostly the areas near the roads, but also made a ten-day trip to large forests around Vuottovaara hill. They made extensive floristic field notes, but the floristic results of the excursion remained unpublished. Soveri began to prepare a manuscript on the relations between vascular plants and human impact in the area, but could not finish this work before his death. His manuscript consisted of 446 distribution maps (10 common species were not mapped), and species lists with special reference to influence of culture and oligotrophy-eutrophy of the habitats. The maps and an annotated summarizing species list are published in this paper.

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