Torfau

The name "Torfau" for the nature reserve on the Große Mühl in the municipality of Ulrichsberg in the Mühlviertel already indicates the character of the landscape. It is a wetland with a great variety of habitats. The Torfau is only the remnant of a once much larger landscape complex that has been massively altered by human intervention - among other things by peat cutting for fuel. Today's peat meadow is a diverse mixture of different landscape structures, from riparian and field copses to small wooded areas, wet meadows and lowland moors. This habitat is home to whistling grass, broom heath, arnica, heath carnation, wood lousewort, low black salsify, fever clover and native orchid species such as spotted cinquefoil and broad-leaved cinquefoil. In addition to 66 different bird species - including kingfisher, hoopoe and sparrowhawk - an incredible 400 large butterfly species have been counted here. The Große Mühl itself, which flows through the nature reserve, is of great importance for the Torfau. There are still stocks of the now rare river pearl mussel here.