My name is  Einar Værnes and I live in a town called Trondheim, in the middle of Norway,  I grew up in the fifties and the sixties, about four kilometers north of the village Melhus, 20 kilometers south of Trondheim. Our house lay close to a country road, 100 meters from the river Gaula, with woods and farming land around us. The place was a paradise for  inquisitive young boys. We ran and biked in the forests, built huts and examined foxholes. We turned stones around  to see what strange creatures that hid under them. In a pond nearly 100 meters from our house we collected tadpoles, gnat larvae, leeches and water devils which we put in glass jars to study closer - alas most of those met a sad destiny. We fished in the river using earthworms as bait, and caught salmon fry and eel. By the riverside there were pools with warm water where we used to swim and catch sticklebacks.

Sorry to say, most of this is now a lost paradise. The greater part of the alder woods by the river is chopped down to make more farm land. Gravel exploitation has ruined much of the river banks, and the pools are filled in.

One of our school duties was to collect and press wild plants to make a herbarium. This awoke an interest in me for the plant life around my home place. We lived in a varied landscape, with mixed forests, fields, meadows, grazing land, roadsides and river banks close by. Within biking distance we could also find seashores, dry hills and marshlands. I rushed around with a bag in my hand, collecting every new species I could find for my collection. The identification was usually quite straight forward, as we had Knut Fægri's flora "Norges Planter I - II " in the book shelf. I can remember that I in high school delivered my herbarium in a cardboard box in stead of a folder - and the frustration when it was later returned to me unopened.

As time went by, time got more scarce.  Homework, studies, children and other domestic duties took most of the time. Even if the interest was still there, there was little time to run around in the woods botanizing.

In the spring 2004 I got a digital camera (Minolta DiMAGE E323), and soon discovered that I could get excellent flower pictures with it. I searched up a couple of plants I had had problems identifying in my youth - a Corydalis and a Dactylorhiza ( I still have problems with that one). I found both of them where I have seen them about 35 years earlier.

The year before, I had also found and identified a plant that was not covered in any of my floras. I had visited my mother in my childhood home, and was on my way home when I could spot a large number of blue "willow herb" at a wood side. Of course I had to stop to investigate that. I fount that it has not a blue willow herb at all, but a rather stout  pea flower I had never seen before. I took some specimen home to see if I could identify it. It was not in any of my floras, the one that came closest was Galega officinalis. I assumed it could be an other Galega species, and searched Internet for other Galegas. After some search I was able to identify it as Galega orientalis. Further internet search revealed that it had been tried in fodder production in Sweden and Finland. I knew the field close by earlier had been used for fodder production, so it was likely that this was a stray from this cultivation. I reported my finding, and the species is now included in the last issue of the main Norwegian flora: "Norsk flora" (ISBN 82-521-6029-8).

All this gave me a kick to resume my old botany hobby. I thought it would be a challenge to see how many different species I could find and identify during one season. I concentrated at the Trondheim area, with some occasional trips to the coast and further up in the mountains. For most of the registrations I have also recorded UTM coordinates(WGS84) to the closest 10 meter square.

I hope to be able to continue updating this net site. Some species I have seen round about are not yet included. Some pictures are also of low quality and should be replaced. I have not written much about the different species, this is information that can easily be found at several other net sites.

I have used those floras for identification: 
- firstly the family's old  Norges Planter I - II by Knut Fægri, which I have now inherited

-   Lid: Norsk flora, 7.utgåva
-   Damms store flora for Norge og Nord-Europa
-   Naturen i farger Floraen I - II
-   The wild flowers of Britain and Northern Europe
-   Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of Britain and Northern Europe

Links to other interesting botanic sites: 
Norsk Botanisk Forenings plantefotoarkiv   Den virtuella floran    Markblomster    Kristins flora   Skye Flora