If it is high summer, the daisies and harebells decorate the fields, accompanied by a large variety of herbs and grasses. A bit earlier, in June, the groundnut flowers lie like a bridal veil over the pastures . If you come in May, the whole area is coloured by pilewort, cuckoo bitter cress, early purple orchid and flowering primrose.
With its mild winters along the coast and the long, humid and relatively warm summers, Ånulgo lies in the middle of the fjord with better than average conditions for plant growth. Originally, the island was covered with dense pine forest. One can still find strips with large pine trees and giant oak trees, and one locality with huge basswood trees.
In 1909 there was an attempt to protect one particular area under the forestry association's administration. The conflict between protecting or planting new trees lasted for a long time. First in 1967, a boundary for the protected area was proposed, along the southeast side of the island. In the meantime, a number of foreign tree types were planted on the island.
The dark, dense spruce forest threatened to outcompete the original pine forest. During later years, much of the planted forest was cut down, and it is unknown whether or not it is possible to return the forest to its pristine state. It will in any case take a long time to heal the sores made by the forestry machines. And it will be one difficult job to remove the common spruce, Sitka spruce, silver fir, hemlock, lark, beech and sycamore maple, that today occupy their niches on Ånulgo. Seed plants are continually coming up everywhere, also in the protected area.
Ånulgo is perhaps best known for its gigantic holly trees and ivy. The biggest ivy in all of Norway used to grow here, but early in the 1950s it gave way to the injuries inflicted by the torpedo assaults during a marine battle that took place in April of 1940. Today, there is a new ivy plant on the verge of overtaking the old giant.
The lush pine forest under Storhaugen hill has attracted international interest. You can wander in the underbrush of 5-8 metre-high juniper, holly and hazel, and experience how small they seem in comparison to the gigantic pine trees that tower overhead. Ivy climbs up the trunks of the pine trees, and woodbind, dogrose and guelder rose form bushes over an exuberant mixture of primrose, bear's garlic and several other coastal plants. By Vedavika bay, one finds the easternmost occurrence of purple heather in the county.