Butterflies can still be found in the meadows, and even at higher altitudes, including those that are now rare in Britain, such as the graceful, creamy yellow and brown swallowtails and the purple Camberwell beauty with its striking cream border. Among the commoner species there are plenty of red admirals, tortoiseshells, yellow brimstones and tiny meadow blues.
Plants and flowers
Clockwise from top right: fragrant orchid, yellow bellflower, alpenrose, soldanella, fairy foxgloves, alpine daffodils
One of the joys of walking in the mountains, especially in spring and early summer, is the abundance and variety of flowers growing in the Alpine pastures, among rock crevices, and in places where you would think no plant life could possibly take hold. The type of mountain terrain affects the species you will find, some thriving on granite, for example, while others prefer limestone. If you are interested in identifying and knowing the names of the individual species, buy a good flower book and a magnifying lens and keep them permanently in your rucksack, and remember to leave extra time for flower identification.
Some of the first flowers you will see in the year, pushing through the melting snow, are members of the bulb and corm family – thousands of little white and purple alpine crocuses, scillas, snowflakes and gageas. These are closely followed by soldanellas, spring gentians, alpine daffodils, sweet smelling narcissi, alpine anemones, violets, rockroses and the deep blue trumpet gentians.
In May and June come the small, delicate field orchids. The earliest of these are the early purple, which flower in April, and elderflower, the yellow and purple varieties growing side by side. Later you will find fragrant, common spotted, burnt, round-headed, pyramidal, butterfly and military, and in August the black vanilla, which actually smells of vanilla. Rarer ones are the lady orchid, which usually grows further south, the tiny green frog and the lady’s slipper, which can be found in isolated places. Most orchids have a spike of flowers, often with a sort of helmet behind, and the lower petal is in the shape of a lip.
In June look out for lilies, the delicate white paradise lily growing on the higher slopes, and the striking deep pink martagon or turk’s cap lily in woods or grassland. Common on high-altitude moorland is the well-known alpenrose (alpine rhododendron), a bushy evergreen shrub with clusters of pale pink to deep pinkish-red flowers, and of course every walker hopes one day to come across the rare edelweiss.
Yellow cowslips, oxlips and primulas are also in abundance, and you will find the pretty, lilac-pink bird’s eye primula farinosa growing beside streams and in damp places. The prolific creamy and yellow pulsatilla anemones and yellow globe flowers strike a vivid note on the green slopes, and the banks of the swollen rivulets cascading down the mountainsides are sprinkled with bright yellow marsh marigolds.
Brightening up bare crevices and clinging to inaccessible rock faces are dozens of different creeping, cushiony rock plants which have lots of tiny blooms, such as saxifrages, moss campion, globularia, toadflax and rock jasmines.
As the slopes are warmed by spring sunshine and the snows start to melt in earnest, more and more flowers appear. July and August are the time for taller plants, with lesser known varieties of gentians coming into flower, such as the great yellow gentian, from whose root the gentian liqueur is made, and a little later, spotted and willow-leaved. There are tall purple monkshood and delphiniums, graceful columbines, rose-bay willow herb, meadow cranesbills, and various types of the carrot family, including cow parsley and the star-like astrantia. There are endless varieties of daisies, including the orange splash of the golden hawksbeard, purple asters and fluffy lilac adenostyles, and dozens of different white and purple thistles with their prickly, silvery leaves. The white false helleborine, a tall yellowish-green starred flower, is frequently found around alpine chalets as it likes the nitrogen-enriched soil. Cattle never touch its poisonous leaves, although these were formerly picked and made into a potion to be used against lice and horseflies.
Many flowers continue to bloom until the end of September and even into October. In these months you will still find harebells and other varieties of the campanula family, and if you are lucky you may spot the rare yellow bellflower (campanula thyrsoides). Small purple field gentians and bright blue fringed gentians now cover the slopes, both distinguished from the earlier spring flowering variety by having only four petals instead of five. Look out for tiny delicate cyclamens in the woods, autumn crocuses (colchicum) in the fields, and heather higher up.
In many tourist offices and mountain refuges there are posters indicating which alpine flowers are rare and therefore protected, and in the nature reserves there are signs stating clearly that it is forbidden to pick any flowers, and certainly not to dig them up. There is nothing more beautiful than a meadow of wildflowers, especially the alpine daffodils or narcissi that can cover an entire mountainside, and nothing more heart breaking than seeing people walking along with bunches of wilted flowers in their hands.
Autumn colours below the Pointe des Mattes (Walk 26)
In late autumn the flowers die away, but the colour continues with bright red rowan berries and the changing leaves, with some magnificent displays of reds and yellows from beech, maple and larch. There are wild raspberries and bilberries for the picking, and in wooded areas there is also a fascinating range of fungi, the edible ones being a real French delicacy. Some of these are quite unlike any found in Britain – they are white, black, grey, purple and even a chilling green – and can normally be seen clinging to the roots of trees or hidden under mounds of dead leaves. There is also the big round red variety with white spots that reminds one of fairytales. Many of these fungi are highly poisonous and should never be eaten without checking first at a local pharmacie (chemist), where there is usually an expert who will do this willingly.
For more information about the plants and flowers of the area, consult Alpine Flowers of Britain & Europe, by Christopher Grey-Wilson and Marjorie Blamey (Collins). You might also like Alpine Flowers by Gillian Price (Cicerone), a useful pocket guide.
Getting there
By car
Many of the walks in this book cannot be reached without a car. If you come by train or air, all the main car hire firms operate from stations and airports, and information about rental can be obtained before you leave.
If you bring your own car, it is better to avoid Paris and take the motorway from Calais via Reims, Chalons, Troyes and Dijon to either Geneva or Annecy. For detailed travel itineraries and route planners, see www.theaa.com, www.rac.co.uk and www.viamichelin.com.
The Dents du Midi from the Col de Cou (Walk 30)
By air
With the increase of cheap flights, flying and then hiring a car can be a more convenient way to travel. The nearest airport to the Haute Savoie is Geneva, and many of the walks in this guide are within an hour’s drive of the city. EasyJet flies to Geneva several times a day from various UK airports (www.easyjet.co.uk), as do British Airways (www.britishairways.com), Swiss (www.swiss.com) and Flybe (www.flybe.com).
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