Alpine Flowers. Gillian Price

colours at high altitudes are red and purple, but there are lots of blue and yellow flowers and also a multitude of white and green flowers: the pale Edelweiss is a good example.

      Bees evidently prefer blooms of pink, blue and yellow and keep a special eye out for flowers with distinctive patterns. They are also suited to flowers with closed or unusual shapes which are fairly sturdy so they can clamber inside.

      Cottongrass seeds are attached to a fluffy lightweight head

      Insect orchids give pollinators an additional helping hand. The Bee Orchid, for instance, fools bees into thinking they have found a mate, and as they alight the pollen rubs off onto their back to be carried away. The Lady’s Slipper Orchid, on the other hand, entices potential pollinators into its cavity and then makes it hard for them to clamber out again, because of its slippery walls and in-turned lips. In the ensuing struggle they become coated with pollen, which they then carry with them to the next flower.

      Flies have weaker vision, reportedly going for bright white and yellow flowers and flatter, saucer-shaped blooms on which they can land without complication. Butterflies, by contrast, have long, thin feeding gear so they prefer tubular flowers. Beetles reportedly like strongly scented flowers as well as bright colours.

      Seed dispersal

      An important system of seed transport and dispersal – the wind – is exploited by alpine flowers to maximum effect. Cottongrass plants attach their seeds to a fluffy lightweight head that is easily detached and carried off by a breeze.

      Other flowers have another card up their sleeve to double their chances of reproducing and seeing another summer. Two notable examples are the Orange Lily and the Alpine Bistort which carry a multitude of ‘bulbils’ or aerial bulbs down their stem; these drop to the ground and mature after two or three years. Similarly, the Cobweb Houseleek has rosettes that can be dropped, propelled by the wind they roll away to a new spot to begin another colony.

      Gaining nutrients

      Insectivorous plants such as the Butterworts exploit insects in a different way – by eating them! Their sticky leaves act as old-fashioned flypaper, trapping the insects. The victims are digested over two days, supplying the host with essential nitrogen and phosphorous and the remains are left on the leaves to be washed away by rain or dew.

      Some plants steal to gain the nutrients they need for survival. The Broomrapes, which do not contain chlorophyll and cannot produce their own food, are parasites that tap into the roots of other plants.

      Predators

      A particular threat to alpine flora is posed by living creatures. Chamois enjoy nibbling Leopardsbane (known as ‘Chamois Grass’ in German), evidently for its high sugar content, while marmots have a penchant for Forget-me-nots. Some human beings continue the unfortunate practice of picking blooms; it was once the fashion to press them between the pages of a book. Fortunately, most enlightened modern-day visitors take away only photographs. Not only does this preserve the brilliance of the colours, it is also the perfect way to appreciate them. It means, for instance, that the picture can be enlarged, revealing previously invisible aspects of these fascinating and precious plants.

      Many of the flowers in this guide are protected – the Edelweiss was the very first, thanks to an 1836 law in Austria. Some, like the Lady’s Slipper, are already rare and risk extinction. It goes without saying that all alpine wild flowers should be left in their natural habitat for others to wonder at.

      Migration and Climate Change

      The origin of a number of alpine species has been traced to the Arctic region and the freezing steppes of central Asia. With the advance of glaciers during the Ice Ages they migrated southwards, spreading out in search of less demanding conditions, and then staying on after the retreat of the icy masses. Well-known examples are the Edelweiss and the Net-leaved Willow.

      Nowadays, with ongoing climate change the Alps, as everywhere, are feeling the effects of the progressive rise in global temperature. Glaciers and snow fields are reducing in surface area, sometimes quite drastically, and the vegetation is shifting upwards in altitude as the plants do their best to seek optimum conditions for growth and survival. The Alpine regions are seeing the arrival of plants previously found lower down on the plains. Monitoring shows that the fastest can ascend 35m in three years. For more see www.gloria.ac.at.

      Alpine Squill and White Crocus appear in springtime

      Naming

      The scientific names for flowers can be quite intimidating, but they are both essential and intriguing in their references. Swedish doctor and naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) introduced the classification system whereby each name consists of two Latin parts, both usually written in italics. The first, beginning with a capital letter, is the Genus (Genera is the plural form), referring to a group of closely related species. This is followed by the actual species name, starting with a small letter, used for members of a group that can inter-breed; this is referred to as the ‘tag’ in the plant descriptions in this guide.

      An even larger grouping is the family, a looser grouping of genera that share common features such as flower shape or number of petals that distinguish them from others; examples are the Daisy and Pink families.

      Naturally, plants all over the Alps have been given common or ‘vulgar’ names which are much easier for non-experts to remember. As an example, Queen of the Alps is the common name for Eryngium (genus name) alpinum (species or tag). For the purposes of this guide an English name (as well as the Latin name) has been used as the main reference and in the Flower Index, but names in French, German and Italian are also listed for each flower to aid walkers across the whole of the Alps.

      These common names often provide a fascinating insight into local beliefs and age-old legends. The example par excellence is again the Edelweiss, German for ‘noble white’ from the story of a maiden who resolved to remain pure, and transmuted into the bloom on death. A second explanation comes from the Italian Dolomites, where they say the flower was tailor-made for a princess pining away for her pale homeland, the moon.

      Identification

      For the purposes of this book, the altitude of 1500m above sea level has been taken as the cut-off level for alpine flowers, although the odd exception found lower down and considered to be of special interest has been included.

      The primary method of identification used here is colour, and to make flower recognition quick and easy – the aim of this guide – flowers have been grouped together under their dominant colour. Naturally, there are infinite variations in shades of colour, especially with blues, reds and purples, so it is always a good idea to leaf through other sections when searching for a flower.

      The colours are presented in the following order in this book:

       RED: shades from pink to red and burgundy

       YELLOW: covering the range through to orange

       BLUE: from light hues through to royal blue

       PURPLE: delicate lilac to rich purple charged with blue and red

       WHITE: predominantly white or creamish. Green has also been included here

      and alphabetically by their English name within each colour section.

      As well as a photograph, key characteristics of each flower are briefly described in simple language for (and by) the non-expert. Notes on name derivation and traditional uses are included. Specialised terminology has been purposely kept to a minimum; however, some terms are necessary for distinguishing similar species and to help observation and identification. Note Even the leading authoritative reference guides disagree on the identification of some plants so there may well be differences of opinion for the flowers in this guide as well.

      Each