It’s lovely to see you! How do you dune? I chose my prettiest dress from the wardrobe and paid a visit to the beachgrass hair salon … just for you!
I also happen to know this area like the back of my hand! Right here in De Doornpanne is where I have wild adventures along with many special animals and plants.
Would you like to meet my friends and discover the things that grow here? I’ll tell you all the secrets of our dunes on these signposts! Ready? Let’s go explore together!
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?
Wat een mooie dag = What a lovely day!
Good to know..
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...
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..
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..
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...
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
Good to know...
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.