Rheinaue Langel-Merkenich

The reserve stretches along the Rhine through Cologne's northern districts, from Langel in the north down to Merkenich in the south-west. The A1 motorway runs straight through the middle, while the K11 district road skirts its western side. To the north-west, the Rheinaue Worringen-Langel reserve (205 hectares) adjoins it directly, so that together the two form an extensive protected floodplain corridor.

The bank presents itself as a partly gravelly, partly sandy tideline that gives way, further inland, to clusters of trees and shrubs and a nutrient-rich fringe of tall perennials. Willow floodplain forest dominates in the north, while the centre opens out into a species-poor but leaf-rich hay meadow, broken up here and there by isolated field copses — mostly planted stands of poplar filled out by self-seeded growth. These copses grow denser in the southern section than in the north.

Further south lie smaller woodlands, some with the character of a hardwood floodplain forest and dominated by maple; at the very southern end, non-native plants take hold as well. Inland, arable fields, lush pastures, kitchen gardens and an old, grazed traditional orchard round out this varied patchwork of a landscape.