Atlas · 104 V3 · Sonnet

Heathland · Orzechów · habitat 4030 · schematic

Purple covers only a fragment.

It is the crown of the heather clump that flowers — not the sand, not the grasses, not the young trees. Change the season and the plot and you will see what stays in place.

Schematic: a view of a model heathland plot A perspective drawing: dome-shaped heather clumps in three planes, pale patches of sand and tufts of grass. Plot B additionally has two pines, a birch and a bird cherry shrub. The colour of the clumps depends on the selected season; the description of the result is in the text alongside.
Fig. 1. Our own schematic (SVG): a single perspective view of a model plot. It is not a photograph, not a map and not a record of a particular spot in Orzechów — the positions of the clumps are invented for the purposes of the illustration. The forms are described in the Four forms section.
Without JavaScript you see the default state: flowering, plot A, outlines on. The three seasons side by side are in the Seasons section, and the two plots in the Treatment section.

Four forms in the view — and which of them is described in the sources

Each crop comes from the same drawing and shows the state selected in the main view. The crops are enlarged by different amounts, so their sizes should not be compared; each one states what part of the width of the whole view it covers.

The crops show: season “Flowering”, plot A, outlines on (the state without a script).

Crop 1: a heather clump A large dome-shaped heather clump in the foreground; the colour of the crown depends on the selected season.

1Heather

Documented

An evergreen, insect-pollinated dwarf shrub; it flowers from August to October [2]. The site belongs to the monitored habitat 4030 [3]. In the schematic: dome-shaped clumps, with the purple appearing in their crowns.

Crop: 38% of the width of the view.

Crop 2: grass tufts Two grass tufts drawn with thin arcs, between the edges of two heather clumps.

2Grasses

Schematic only

The source pack does not say which grasses grow at this site. The tufts are an element of the landscape; species must not be identified from the drawing.

Crop: 20% of the width of the view.

Crop 3: where self-seeded trees stand A part of the view where, in plot B, a schematic pine stands; in plot A the same spot is empty.

3Self-seeded trees

Documented

The RDOŚ Lublin notice names the three species being removed: silver birch, Scots pine and black cherry [1].

Plot A: there are no self-seeded trees in this crop. Plot B with the tree is shown in the Treatment section.

Crop: 14% of the width of the view.

Crop 4: bare sand A pale, oval patch of sand between the middle and foreground planes of clumps.

4Bare sand

Schematic only

Version V2 called such places regeneration niches; this version has no separate source for that. The patch is a drawing, not a measurement of cover.

Crop: 35% of the width of the view.

Where does flowering end?

In this schematic — at the colour of the clump crowns. The three views side by side have identical geometry: the same clumps, the same sand, the same grasses. Only the colour of one layer changes.

Season 1: before flowering The whole view with the heather clumps in green and grey.
1 · Before flowering. Clumps in green and grey. The window for this season is not given in the pack’s sources, so it is not on the timeline.
Season 2: flowering The whole view with purple heather clump crowns; sand and grasses unchanged.
2 · Flowering. Purple only in the clump crowns. Flowering period of the species: August–October according to the State Forests [2].
Season 3: after flowering The whole view with the clumps in brown and cinnamon; the layout is the same as in the other seasons.
3 · After flowering. Clumps in brown and cinnamon. The window for this season is not given in the pack’s sources.

The absence of purple after the season is a time of year, not a verdict. The colour in the drawing says nothing about the condition of the habitat — that is judged by a specialist, and the source pack contains no such assessment.

The treatment: what is documented and what is missing

Below are two schematics of the same view. They are models, not before-and-after photographs of the treatment at Orzechów: a series of photographs from a single point, with a date and an author, is the material that is missing.

Plot A: schematic of open ground A view without self-seeded trees: heather clumps, sand and grasses.
Plot A — open (schematic). Without young pine, birch and black cherry.
Plot B: schematic with self-seeded trees The same view with two pines, a birch and a black cherry shrub casting shade on some of the clumps.
Plot B — with self-seeded trees (schematic). The same clumps, but a taller tier of trees casts shade on some of them.
Observation

What can be seen

  • the colour of the clumps in a given season,
  • whether there are trees in the view,
  • where there is bare sand.

Without a series of photographs from the same point, no change is documented here.

Document

Date and scope of the treatment

23 December 2025 — RDOŚ Lublin notice on the completion of tree and shrub removal over 7 ha [1].

Not known from the pack: the start date, the position of these 7 ha relative to the view, and the exact purpose. They have not been put on the timeline.

Specialist assessment

Effect of the treatment

It cannot be read from the colour or the saturation of a photograph. The source pack contains no assessment of the state of the habitat after the treatment.

Questions for the material: from which point, and when, was the photograph taken? Can the view be repeated in the same seasons? Who assessed the change, and by what criteria?

Explanation and limits

What this drawing is

Our own SVG schematic: one perspective of a model plot, in which the positions of the clumps, sand, grasses and trees are invented. It is not a map, a photograph or a measurement of cover — which is why there are no percentages here.

If you go there

This page does not indicate routes and permits nothing. According to the description in version V2, heather patches are easily damaged by trampling: keep to the paths open to the public, do not pick plants, and check the rules with the land manager (to be confirmed).

What you cannot read from the drawing

  • The colour of the clumps says nothing about the condition of the habitat.
  • The shape of a schematic tree does not identify the species.
  • The arrangement of the clumps is neither a map nor a record of the place.

What was removed relative to V2

  • The shares calculator for heather, trees and sand (0–100% sliders, counter-examples): it set arbitrary numbers with no source. Replaced by a description of the four forms and the status of their documentation.
  • The observation log in browser storage: not needed to understand the topic. Replaced by questions about the missing series of photographs.
  • The phase tabs (one phase at a time): replaced by a strip of the three seasons side by side.
  • The photograph of heather from Wikimedia Commons: it is not loaded, so that the page works offline; the link remains in the sources.

Kept from V2

  • three seasons of the same plot,
  • two plot schematics (open and with self-seeded trees),
  • switching the outlines on and off,
  • links to three sources.

Sources

  1. RDOŚ Lublin: działania ochronne w Orzechowie, 23.12.2025 [RDOŚ Lublin: conservation work at Orzechów] — per V2: a notice on the completion of work over 7 ha (silver birch, Scots pine, black cherry).
  2. Lasy Państwowe: wrzos pospolity [State Forests: common heather] — per V2: the structure of an evergreen dwarf shrub, and flowering from August to October.
  3. GIOŚ: monitoring suchych wrzosowisk 4030, 2016–2018 [GIOŚ: monitoring of dry heaths 4030, 2016–2018] — per V2: the location of the Nowy Orzechów site (Lublin Voivodeship, Łęczna–Włodawa Plain).
  4. Wikimedia Commons: Calluna vulgaris, zbliżenie kwiatów [flower close-up] — a context photograph from V2 (author and licence given there as David Remahl, PD-self), not used here. The rights need checking.

Status: the links and summaries were carried over from V2. In this version they have not been reopened or verified again; the descriptions of their contents need checking in the sources themselves.