Historically, on the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 2 July, medicinal plants were harvested, fires were built, and preparations were made for the hectic haymaking season. It is also a day when flowering Estonian meadows are at their most beautiful. On Heritage Meadows Day, which is being celebrated for the second year, we want to value and appreciate the importance of the most biologically diverse communities in Estonia – after all, more species of plants grow in an area the size of the palm of your hand on the Laelatu wooded meadow than anywhere else in the world – in preserving the diversity of Estonian nature as well as Estonia’s cultural history and identity.

Residents of Tallinn were able to hike in the Paljassaare Special Conservation Area, where, under the guidance of nature lover, guide, and adviser Hanno Zingel, we got to know all of those blooming meadow flowers that we see and recognise, but are not always able to name. In addition, we set up a fieldscope at the tip of Paljassaare, with the help of which the most special find was perhaps the female common merganser with her 18 ducklings.

Despite the hot weather, a large crowd gathered for the event, and we were particularly pleased that the residents of Paljassaare decided to join us!

It was great that Merike Linnamägi, an invasive species specialist, had joined us on the hike, as we also stumbled upon knotweed, an invasive species that is widely distributed in Estonia, and she gave us advice on how to get rid of knotweed and spoke more broadly about the problems posed by invasive species!

A note for those who are planning to take a plant trip on their own – Flora Incognita, a plant identification app, has been released, which you can download to your phone for free!