Mader Stein

Mader Stein, or Maderstein, is a 265m high hill in North Hesse, Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, north-east of the village of Maden, which belongs to the town of Gudensberg.GeologyThe hill is the remains of an extinct volcano that belongs to the West Hesse Depression. The volcano was active in the Miocene, i.e. it began 20 million years ago and ended 7 million years ago. The only part of the volcano that is left is the neck; the rest has been eroded. The alkali basalt has a silica (SiO2) volume percentage of 45-55%. The main minerals in the rock are plagioclase, augite and olivine.The hill cannot be called a kuppe because the top is covered with rock formations. Instead Mader Stein can considered a rocky hillock. The columns of basalt of the hill are sub-horizontal, as at Scharfenstein.BiotopeThe hill, is part of a 311 ha Habitats Directive (German: Flora, Fauna, Habitat; FFH) conservation area that covers the Gudensberg region and the Falkenstein forest (FFH-Nr. 4721-304). Basalt is relatively poor in nutrients and minerals for plants, and the summit of the hill is very hot and dry in summer, which gives rise to unique flora successions. In particular, Dictamnus, a flowering plant in the family Rutaceae, is found on Mader Stein and Nenkel, although it is very rare in the rest of Germany. To maintain this situation the town of Gudensberg regularly sends people to cut down bushes (in particular blackthorn) that encroach on the summit of the hill.