Due to its different land forms, Niederösterreich offers a varied flora.
In the Waldviertel region forests with spruces, beech trees and fir-trees
dominate, but there birches and Scots pines grow there. The Weinviertel region
offers forests with oaks and hornbeams and in the Wienerwald forest oaks and
beech trees are found. This forest changes into a woody steppe on the sandy
and rocky soils of the Marchfeld region and in the Hundsheimer mountains near
Hainburg.
The rivers Danube, March and Leitha are surrounded by lush forests with willows,
poplars, ash-trees, elms and alders. In the undergrowth dominate elder and
liana.
The originally mixed forest with beech trees, fir-trees, Scotch elms, yews and
maples is nowadays replaced by forested spruche woods in the Western part of the
Wienerwald forest, in the Alpine foothills and in the chalky Alps of Lower
Austria.
In higher Alpine regions also the larch grows. At the upper edge of the forest
at an altitude of approx. 1700 m spruces and larches are found. The mountain
pine is characteristic of the chalky plateaus (Rax, Schneeberg).
In the Middle Age large territories were cleared because of more extensive
cattle breeding. Today these areas are meadows where numerous flowers are
growing; for example the narcissus meadows in the region around Lunz are
something very special.
In the Waldviertel region there are some moors which are surrounded by dwarf
artic birchs, cotton grass, heather and sledge.
The Alpine flora is very colourful and varied. In spring the Alpine pastures
have a marvellous appearance with all the colourful flowers as solanellas,
primosas, alpine gentians and so on.
