Originally one third of Finland was marshlands. Maybe that is why Finland is Suomi in Finnish - suo means marshland. Half of the original marshlands have been drained for use as arable land or to increase forest growth. Especially in Southern Finland there are very few large marshlands left. We visited Torronsuo - which is one of the biggest marshlands in Southern Finland - about one hours drive from Helsinki.
The picture shows the flowering of wild cranberry, Vaccinium oxycoccos. Also cloudberry was flowering while some already are raw berries. And at the edges of the marshland mountain cranberry (lingonberry) is flowering too. Bilberry has already formed small berries - of course still raw and green. So this is where we need to come to pick cranberries in the late summer. (Of course the commercial picking happens mostly in Northern Finland.) V.oxycoccos is by the way not the same cranberry as its much bigger brother that is cultivated in Canada (V. macrocarpum).
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