HELLO, I'M DORA DUNE

Stop, you’ve reached the border!

See this unique boundary marker? It used to mark the border between the parishes of Oostduinkerke and Koksijde. The original wooden post was fortified with cement near the end of the 19th Century, which is why you can still see it here today!

Crusty moss?

Not moss at all, in fact! The dry, hard crust on this stone marker is known as lichen. And while it might look like moss, it’s actually not even a plant at all! In lichen, a fungus is responsible for the overall appearance, while an alga serves to feed the fungus.

Dora’s Dune Tips

- Pyramid shape: The tiers ensure that water can  easily flow down the post.

- Discover more lichen: There is lichen on the stones, but various lichen types also appear in nature. You can often find yellow maritime sunburst lichen on elderberry bushes!

Hey, have you seen the ponies and donkeys?

You might notice my friends grazing here and there. For dozens of years, we’ve lived happily together here. You’re welcome to explore the grazing zones, but please don’t pet or feed the animals. Grasses are their favourite thing to eat, and they also enjoy the occasional piece of bark. That’s a good thing – it keeps them from munching on my beautiful beachgrass hair!

THAT’S CLEVER

The donkeys and ponies who graze here ensure that these dunes don’t become overgrown with shrubs and trees. And thankfully so! Their snacking allows more sunlight to reach other plants, helping them grow into colourful fields of flowers in spring and summer.

Let’s explore

Ready to spot some donkeys and ponies? Put on your detective’s hat and step into the grazing area. It’s important to stick to the path and keep your distance from the animals.

Please note: Dogs – even the loveliest ones – cannot join you in the grazing zone, since donkeys consider dogs to be dangerous predatory creatures.

Dora’s Dune Tips

- Loads of room to graze: The donkeys and ponies live in herds, each with their own area of about 30 hectares.

- Do not feed: Feeding the animals could make them ill or encourage begging behaviour.

- Fabulous flowers: Thanks to our grazers, flowers can flourish here. How many types of flowers can you count?

1. The wind is strong — but not strong enough to move an entire dune on its own! To get the job done, it needs help from sand, sea and plants.
2. At times, a piece of driftwood or a dead fish will wash onto the shore. Moisture causes it to rot, allowing plants to grow there. And that … is the beginning of a dune.
3. When wind blows at the sand, plants will stop grains of sand from blowing away …
4. It’s when it rains that things get truly exciting. Certain plants much prefer rainwater to seawater. Beachgrass is one of them!
5. Dora Dune takes another big gulp of rainwater so that she and her beachgrass hair can collect even more sand. Dora and the sea breeze are a powerful pair!
6. The wind keeps coming in from the sea until you can barely see Dora anymore. The beachgrass gets covered, then grows new roots beneath the sand.
7. Before you know it, tiny plants will appear, in turn stopping and holding even more grains of sand. And that’s how our dunes continue to grow … for hundreds of years!

Wat een mooie dag = What a lovely day!

Good to know..

• Scientific name: Euonymus europaeus
• Habitat: Older dune shrublands
• Family: Staff-vine family. The European spindle is related to the rare grass of Parnassus – or bog stars – found in wet dune valleys.
• Flowering period: Its eye-catching red fruits appear in autumn.
• Typical feature: With a touch of imagination, the box-shaped fruits look a bit like a cardinal’s red hat

 Tasty treat for birds

Bright orange arils appear when the four flaps on these unique fruits pop open. The fleshy arils and the seeds inside remain on the branches for quite some time, making for a delicious bird snack. They are poisonous to humans, though! Spindle ermine moths will often visit the spindle plants in spring. These moths then cover the shrubs in webs where they lay their eggs. After the spindle ermine caterpillars emerge, they sometimes eat the plants completely bare. Thankfully, the European spindle knows how to recover time and time again thanks to photosynthesis in its square-shaped green twigs.

Good to know...

• Scientific name: Salix repens
• Habitat: Lime-rich dune sand
• Family: The creeping willow is closely related to other willow species that often prefer wetter environments.
• Flowering period: In April and May, you’ll see its characteristic yellow catkins appear.
• Typical feature: Dense fuzz on the underside of its leaves makes sure the plant doesn’t lose too much water.

Shrewd subshrub

The creeping willow is an undershrub that mostly sprouts in places where groundwater levels rise close to the surface. Any time the creeping willow is at risk of being buried by windblown sand, the plant will grow several metres tall to keep up with the heaping sand. Its roots always stay connected to the groundwater, though, even when it seems to be growing in a very dry spot.

Good to know..

• Scientific name: Ligustrum vulgare
• Habitat: Dune shrublands
• Family: Olive family
• Flowering period: The flowers appear in June and July, followed by somewhat shiny black berries.
• Typical feature: The tiny white flowers have a delightful scent, but the berries are poisonous to humans.

In the dunes or in the garden?

Wild privet looks a lot like the garden privet you might find in your own garden. The difference is in their twigs. Garden privet has many young and bare twigs, and its berries remain green in colour. The berries of the wild privet ripen into a black colour and its branches are short and a bit fuzzy. You can recognise its leaves by their oval shape, smooth edge and leathery texture. The bush can grow up to three metres tall and it reproduces with the help of birds who like to feast on its berries.

Good to know..

• Scientific name: Prunus spinosa
• Habitat: Older dune shrublands
• Family: Rose family
• Flowering period: Flowers bloom from March until early May, followed by the appearance of dark blue berries.
• Typical feature: The berries are packed with fruit acids, aromas and vitamin C.

Trekkebek

After its white flowers have bloomed, the blackthorn’s deep blue berries appear. They might look tempting, but don’t be fooled! They have a very sour, bitter flavour that earned them the Flemish nickname trekkebek – something that makes you pull a silly face! While they’re quite healthy for you, you shouldn’t really eat the berries in the spring. But each time the temperature drops to a freeze, the trekkebek’s flavour becomes a little bit sweeter.

Good to know...

• Scientific name: Crataegus monogyna & Crataegus laevigata
• Habitat: Older dune shrublands
• Family: Rose family
• Flowering period: Its red fruit appears after its flowers bloom in May and June.
• Typical feature: Nitrogen in the dune soil helps hawthorn plants sprout and grow. (The nutrient is built by seaberry plants, known as nitrogen fixers.)

Two types in De Doornpanne

You’ll find two types of hawthorn plants here: the common or single-seeded hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) and the Midland hawthorn (Crataegus laevigata). You can tell them apart by their style – the section of the pistil between the stigma and the ovary. The common hawthorn typically has just one style per flower, sometimes two. The Midland hawthorn always has at least two. No flowers to be seen? In that case, take a look at the leaves. Those on the common hawthorn are quite deeply lobed, often over halfway to the midrib.

Welcome to our "Vissersstraat"

This walk is a journey through Koksijde’s town history. Once upon a time, shrimp fishers used this Vissersstraat – or ‘fishermen's street’ – as a quicker route to the beach. In 1936, the street was paved as a part of an English development project that was never completed. And today … it leads the way for wanderers like you in our nature reserve!

Take the mule to the beach

Long ago, this street was right in the centre of Koksijde. Shrimp fishers and their mules would use it as a shortcut to get to the beach. At the same time, they would bring along their sheep and goats to graze in the dunes. Two birds with one stone!

Paved and official

After the street was paved in 1936, the central area of De Doornpanne came under ownership of local water supply company Intercommunale Waterleidingmaatschappij Veurne-Ambacht. After World War I , it became mandatory for streets to carry a name. Those names were mostly French at the time – oui oui – since most landowners were French speaking.

Dora’s Dune Tips

• The true "Vissersstraat": Did you know this street didn’t receive its official name until after World War I ?
• Walk on: These days, you can still wander through the dunes over a large part of the original paving.

Saltwater: don’t drink it – yuck!

Brackish water: less salty, but not quite drinkable!

Freshwater: glug, glug!

Zout water —> saltwater

Duinen —> dunes

Winput —> extraction well

Infiltratiepand —> infiltration basin

GROUNDWATER EXTRACTION

1. When it rains, rainwater filters into the sand. A layer of clay in the ground then slows down that water, creating a pocket of water underground. In natural circumstances, the freshwater and saltwater keep each other balanced. As long as there’s enough freshwater, the saltwater cannot penetrate into the ground
2. High-quality dune water is extracted to be used as drinking water. When there isn’t enough rain, the groundwater level drops, giving saltwater from the sea the chance to gradually flow back. That causes the ground in the dunes to salinize, which is bad for the natural environment.
3. Our solution? In our dunes is a large pond where we store recycled wastewater. This water reinfiltrates the sand, keeping groundwater at a high enough level. This cycle keeps our water extraction process sustainable while nature stays in balance, too.

Managing groundwater levels

This artificial pond – or infiltration basin – is a whopping 21,000 m². It is key to replenishing the groundwater in the surrounding dunes. On both sides of the basin, infiltrated water can be extracted through extraction wells about 8–12 m below the surface. This system has decreased groundwater extraction throughout the rest of the extraction area. The positive results? Increasing groundwater levels and improved natural values! 

Look at all those seaberries!

The seaberry plant and I we’re inseparable.

The seaberry or sea buckthorn plant is known here as duindoorn, meaning ‘dune thorn’. You will find the plant in many different spots throughout the dunes. If you decide to take a closer look, beware of its spiky thorns!

OUCH!

Boys and girls

As a dioecious plant, the sea buckthorn has both male and a female plants. The shrubs will often appear grouped together by sex.

In summer, you might spot a cluster of plants with orange berries – those are the girls! Just five of those berries contain your recommended daily amount of vitamin C.

Shrub full of superpowers

White scales on the branches reflect the sunlight, lowering the plant's temperature and allowing less water to evaporate. The leaves help with those tasks, too, thanks to a waxy layer on top and soft fuzz on the underside. Grab a leaf and feel for yourself!

Dora’s Dune Tips

• Don’t call a thorn a prickle: Thorns are connected to a plant’s sap flow, while prickles grow on the outer layer or epidermis. Roses, for example, have prickles, not thorns. Both are prickly though, no matter what you call them!
• Magnificent moths: The brown-tail moth lays its eggs between the leaves. When spring arrives, the caterpillars feast on the leaves!
• Clever roots: The sea buckthorn plant reproduces not only through its seeds, but also underground via its network of roots.

Can you see the mix in the sand?

Sand contains minerals and tiny pieces of stone and shell. Scoop up a handful of sand and start exploring! You’ll see colours, textures and maybe even something unexpected – because nature is always full of surprises!

From rock to sand

Sand begins to form when pieces of rock break off into a river. Water scrubs along those stone fragments, wearing them into smaller and smaller morsels over time. That’s how rocks very slowly transform into sand.

A quest through the dunes

There is quite a lot of wildlife here in the dunes. Who knows – you might discover tracks left by snails, rabbits or foxes. You can even leave your own tracks in the sand! Use your hand or foot to make a clear imprint in the sand, then write your name next to it.

Dora’s Dune Tips

• Building dunes: Sea and wind, rain and plants – all together they build the dunes out of sand.
•  Wonderful sand baths: Animals use the sand to bathe themselves. Birds rub their bodies through the sand, working it into their feathers to get everything nice and clean.
•  Water use: Rainwater can quite easily seep down through the sand to deeper layers of soil.

Come see the wild roses!

You will find many types of roses here in the dunes, like the dog rose and the sweetbriar rose. Those two varieties each have five petals and leaves that are glossy on top. The flowers are popular with birds and insects, since they offer food, cover and a place to nest. Let me tell you more about these superflowers!

Fragrant sweetbriar rose

A sweetbriar rose has tiny glands on the underside of its leaves and leafstalks. While you can only see the glands with a magnifying glass, they do create a delicious scent. Try pinching one of the leaves to see for yourself! The stem of a sweetbriar rose is quite thick, with alternating straight and hooked prickles.   

Vitamin-rich dog rose

A dog rose looks quite a lot like a sweetbriar rose, but you will still spot a few differences. For example, all the prickles on this rose are extremely hooked — they look like witches’ noses! Of all the wild rose varieties, the dog rose also contains the highest level of vitamin C.

Dora’s Dune Tips

• Delicious rose hips: Humans brew them into tasty tea. Birds gobble the fruit up whole, then drop the seeds in another location. Those bird droppings make it so that roses can grow there, too.

• Clever prickles: Mice and other small rodents love the fleshy rose hip fruit, but they’re not WILD ROSES

exactly helpful when it comes to plant reproduction. The prickles keep the animals from climbing up to reach the rose hips.

• No rose without a thorn: Not true, actually! Roses have prickles, not thorns. Both are quite prickly to the touch, though, so perhaps their name is not what matters most …
• Moss gall for larvae: Gall wasps lay their eggs in the roses, resulting in the formation of moss gall in which larvae can develop.

Let’s play a game!

I’d like you to meet some friends of mine – and I’ll let you guess who they are! After reading this signpost, I’m sure you’ll know. And since I like to be helpful, here are a few hints to get you started: my friends are excellent diggers, they live in warrens and stay close to their family. Any idea who they might be?

Delicious dune snacks

The family looks for food close to home, eating things like grasses and twigs from the dune shrubs. In summer, herbs are a favourite snack; in winter, these animals get sugars and proteins from nibbling on the bark of thin trunks and twigs. Lady’s bedstraw, sand sedge and creeping willow are popular sources of nutrients for them. Can you spot any of those plants nearby?

A safe home

The strongest male animal chooses the best part of the dune as a home for his family. Males mark the area with little pellet mounds (latrines) and strong scents. Their home is a warren with many tunnels and rooms where the family can live all warm and snug together. These animals only come out after the sun goes down, and they sneak back into their burrows after sunrise. This keeps them safe from foxes, polecats and weasels!

Dora’s Dune Tips

• Boys & girls: The male animals are called ‘bucks’, the females ‘does’.
• Strong diggers: While the animals dig entire networks of tunnels, they also create smaller holes (scrapes) to express aggression or dig out a plant root. Even the little ones practise their digging that way!
• Natural maintenance: Their grazing behaviour, digging activity and organic fertiliser all have a big impact on plant life in the dunes.

Did you solve the mystery?

Then keep veeeeery quiet. You might just spot one of these adorable balls of fluff during your walk. Feel free to check a burrow when you see one and discover whether it’s a deep tunnel or only a scrape. What a thrill!

Photos :

⦁          Geel walstro => Lady’s bedstraw

⦁          Zandzegge => sand sedge

⦁          Kruipwilg => creeping willow

Plants are smarty-pants!

Surviving in the dunes is quite tricky. There aren’t many nutrients in the ground, water is hard to come by, and there is a big difference between summer and winter. And yet you can still find a lot of plants here. How? Because those plants are very clever!

Star moss is a chameleon

When star moss gets enough water, the plant becomes a beautiful shade of green. At times of drought, star moss plays dead by turning brown. And, in fact, this chameleon plays an important role in securing the dunes. The moss plants grow up against each other, keeping the sand in place.

[duinsterretjesmos bij droogte] —> star moss in drought

[met voldoende water] —> with enough water

Beachgrass conserves water

Like many other plants, European beachgrass has little openings in its leaves. These stomata close up when the weather is very warm to stop water from evaporating – and beachgrass even rolls up its leaves for the same reason. That means the plant can look quite different in warm or cold weather!

Dora’s Dune Tips

• The first: Star moss is one of the first plants to grow when a new mossy dune is created.
•  On the move: European beachgrass  – or Marram grass – mostly grows in migrating dunes, that move where the wind takes them.
•  Always rising to the surface: Beachgrass that has been covered with sand always finds a way to grow back out of the windblown sand.

Good to know...

• Scientific name: Sambucus nigra
• Habitat: Nitrogen-rich soil in the dune shrublands
• Family: Moschatel family
• Flowering period: The blossoms appear in spring, followed by the berries.
• Typical feature: White blossoms with a distinctive scent

Delicious blossoms and berries

The white flowers are grouped into flat, round clusters like little bouquets – easy to recognise. The plant’s black-purple berries and scent are also very characteristic of the plant. Just rub the elderberry leaves to unlock the scent. These days, the blossoms are often used in elderflower drinks, while the fruit is turned into syrup. Did you know that elderberry plants were traditionally kept out of coppice or coppice forests? They were considered mort-bois – meaning ‘deadwood’ – so there was no concern with removing them altogether as brushwood.​