![Fjøsanger](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/berg_49.jpg?itok=x0vBKTNz)
Fjøsanger
Fjøsanger is known among ice age researchers from around the world. Under an excavation in 1975-77, geologists from the University of Bergen found layers from the last interglacial, ca. 115 000 to 130 000 years old.
![Norwegian Sagebrush](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/jondal_3.jpg?itok=fj-tqk5a)
Jonstein
When high school student Arne Handegard collected plants for a herbarium in 1962, he didn’t know what kind of rarity he had pressed into his notebook. 30 years later he attended a botanical lecture, where a picture was shown of a plant he recognized: “Norwegian Sagebrush, which in Norway is only found in a large area of Dovre and in Trollheimen, and in a little area in Ry county”. Arne Handegard raised his hand: “That plant grows on Mt. Jonstein in Jondal”.
![Gjønavatnet and Kikedalen](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/190/nvh_320_kikedalen_150.jpg?itok=mWd_BFbm)
![The sites show the longhouse, a smaller “old folk’s house” and a hayshed.](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/3151.jpg?itok=c_m0Rz1s)
Lurekalven
Lurekalven is an unpopulated island of heather moor which is a part of the wilderness belonging to the five farms on Ytre Lygra. Between the two islands there is only a small sound. As late as the 1920s, milking cows were rowed over the sound from Lygra in summer – a form of farming that was adapted to the coastal landscape.
![Vollom](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/lindas_14.jpg?itok=RhEa2l84)
Vollom
On Vollom, northwest of Seim, we find the only natural beech forest in Western Norway, which is also the most northerly of its type in the world. Beech grows also many other places in the county, but these trees are totally lacking in history compared with those of Vollomskogen Forest.
![Otterstadstølen](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/mo_4.jpg?itok=yFY5zoII)
Otterstadstølen
Otterstadstølen lies in an idyllic grassy plain surrounded by rich forest, but also with high mountains close by. The mountainsides are steep and typical of this part of the county. The same cannot be said about the forest. This spruce forest has been able to develop freely for hundreds of years. Otherwise in the county, only Voss has spruce forest.
![From Grønafjellet toward Kattnakken.](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/fi_16.jpg?itok=aYyd-7QK)
Grønafjellet
Mountain plants with their beautiful, colourful flowers are common in high altitude areas in Norway. On the coast there are not so many of them. But, here and there one nonetheless finds mountain plants, and this makes some coastal mountainsides a little bit different. Perhaps the growth on these mountainsides gives us a little glimpse of a distant past?
![Lake Tveitavatnet](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/stord_42.jpg?itok=AqtnVja2)
Tveitavatnet
It is difficult to imagine that a plant can grow at the same place for many thousands of years: Climate and local environment change. Different species grow up and die out. Nonetheless, some plants get established, but don't manage to spread into new areas, because the climate is at the edge of what they can tolerate. Great fen-sedge is just such a plant.
![Typical landscape in Geitaknottane Nature Preserve](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/kvam_38.jpg?itok=nBAhBLqi)
Geitaknottane
Many travellers between Mundheim and Gjermundshamn are captivated by the expansive view toward Øynefjord, Varaldsøy and Folgefonna. The barren pine forest on the slopes on the upper-side of the road is not seen by many. Who would think that this area is home to rare species of plants and animals, creatures who have made their homes here for thousands of years?
![From Valldalen](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/odda_7.jpg?itok=G6Rkb1V7)
Valldalen
Valldalen or Valdalen, the name that the locals used in past times, had been a permanent settlement for a long time, and later the biggest mountain-farm valley in western Norway. Since that time there have been many changes: Most of the fields are no longer in use. Bjørkeskogen, a birch forest that had grown in the valley for thousands of years, took more and more over. And in the valley bottom, the Valldals dam now keeps the artificially large Valldalsvatnet Lake in place.