’Gooseberry is the only thing left’ – a study of declining biological cultural heritage at abandoned crofts in the province of Södermanland, Sweden

ABSTRACT

This is a study about cultivated and ‘wild’ plants as components of the material heritage of crofters, an overlooked group of people in former agrarian landscapes. Despite abundant remains of crofts in Sweden, inhabited during the period from the eighteenth century until the 1940s, crofters have been subject to few studies. We used a survey conducted 1967 of botanical remains at abandoned croft as a basis for a re-survey in 2019. As with all biological traces of former human activities, cultivated plants and wild species favoured by former management ultimately disappear, but with long delays. We describe the patterns of this decline. In general, about a third of the species were gone after 52 years. The rate of disappearance of single species occurrences was about 1% annually. We discuss the interpretation of botanical remains from since long abandoned crofts in the context of heritage. In some cases, the botanical remains were the only material evidence left. We conclude that the material heritage of crofters deserves further studies and that botanical remains at abandoned crofts should be documented and at least at some sites protected.

KEYWORDS:

• Agrarian landscapes
• boreal forest
• cultivated plants
• ethnobotany

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the local history society of Frustuna parish for support and for the invitation to an excursion and to E. Svensson, J. Ehrlén, M. Edlund and three anonymous reviewers for comments on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ove Eriksson

Ove Eriksson is Professor in Plant Ecology at Stockholm University. His main research is in landscape and historical ecology, with a focus on semi-natural grasslands, historically used for grazing and hay-making.

Linnea Glav Lundin

Linnea Glav Lundin is MSc in ecology and Research Assistant in a Project on historical forest management.