Schwarzes Moor

The Schwarzes Moor lies in the High Rhön mountains where Bavaria meets Hesse and Thuringia. It is a raised bog of 66 hectares, the largest intact peatland complex in the Rhön. The dome-shaped surface, up to eight metres thick with peat, slopes away in all directions from a nearly rectangular central plateau 800 metres long and 400 metres wide. Its name comes from the black colour that red Magellanic peat moss turns when it rots in the wetter conditions here. The bog drains south through the Eisgraben into the Streu and the Rhine, while a smaller flow heads west to the Ulster and the Weser. Flarken—long, deep cracks in the peat—run parallel to the contours and shift as the bog body moves, a feature rare in other Central European moors. Paths lead across the plateau past Flarken and the three Kolke, or Mooraugen, dark water pools up to 2.5 metres deep. Around the edges grow Karpaten birch and a fringe of lowland fen grasses such as cotton grass and sedges. The air is often filled with mist and frost lingers even in summer, creating a cold island where only hardy plants survive.