Stiftelsen Arboretum Lassas Hagar

Arboretum Lassas Hagar on the island of Svartlöga in the Stockholm archipelago is a unique nature and culture project that has been going on for four decades in a cut-off environment without electricity and other modern amenities. The arboretum was formed in 1980 by the late founder Sten Ridderlöf and since 2005 owned and managed by the Foundation Arboretum Lassas Hagar. The arboretum is located just west of the old village, about 300 m from the sea.

The 5-hectare arboretum, located in a protected area, houses a collection of around 2500 different trees and bushes and with a water garden based on around ten dug ponds. The emphasis is on the genera oaks, magnolias, maples and rhododendrons. Many of the lignoses are collected from seed that Sten Ridderlöf collected during his botanical expeditions in the cooler flora areas of the southern and northern hemispheres like Russia, China, Japan, South and North Korea, New Zealand, USA, Argentina, Chile etc.

Some of the more rarer species include Abies gracilis, A. marocana, Acer okamotoanum, Chosenia arbutifolia, Cunninghamia lanceolata, Dipteronia sinensis, Liriodendron chinense, Nothofagus pumilio, Sambucus racemosa var. pendula, Sorbus filipes, S. helenae, Viburnum bitchiuense, Pinus bungeana, P. x funebris, Rhododendron macabeanum, R. aureodorsale, R. purdomii, Magnolia fraseri, M. ‘Silk Road’ x insignes, M. officinalis var. biloba, M. x wieseneri, M. wilsonii, Quercus serrata ssp. mongolicoides, Q. dentata x mongolica ssp. crispula, Q. dentata, Q. libani, Q. ‘Pondaim’, Q. phellos, Q, imbricaria, Q. aliena.  

The overall aim is to care for and develop the collection in a long-term favorable way. The arboretum can also be seen as a garden for unusual, exotic, and decorative trees and shrubs and a future gene bank for a hardy plant material of known origin.