Lanklaar, As and Lanklaar

Seven hundred hectares of rolling, loamy sandy soils and peat-rich soil, covered with heather plants. This can only be about the largest heathland in Flanders: the Mechelse Heide. Once there was a primeval forest here, which was decimated by the felling and grazing of the area. What remained was a heathland, which is well maintained. Young trees are felled and the humus-rich soil layers are sod-cut, so that new heather plants have the space to grow. In the summer, the heathland turns a beautiful purple due to the typical heathland vegetation, but the red bell heather, which is rare in Belgium, is also common here.

Broom bushes grow between the heather plants, and here and there tall shrubs and trees grow. The quaking poplar, alder buckthorn and winter oak are some of the species you can encounter. High up in the trees the tree pipit, the robin and the nightjar build their nests and lizards scurry under the foliage. Among the really rare and striking species are the smooth snake and the saddle grasshopper, but of course the characteristic inhabitants of heathland areas are also present: ants and tiger beetles struggle their way through the sandy soil, where rabbits hop happily over it. All of this is just a stone's throw away from Lanklaar.