as well as a boost for the plant itself as seed development accelerates. Should the heat become overwhelming, the plant can rotate its ‘satellite dish’ parallel to the incoming rays to reduce exposure; this also minimises moisture loss, essential in dry habitats.
The Carline Thistle, on the other hand, has the advantage of hygrometric (moisture measuring) equipment in the scales that envelop its flowers. This is triggered in adverse weather and the flower closes up in self-defence; it will then open when conditions improve. This behaviour has earned the plant the reputation of being a reliable weather forecaster.
Reproduction
In their very short annual growth period, concentrated into 100 days at most, survival is not the sole life purpose of alpine flowers; reproduction is also crucial. Generally speaking, a plant’s growth period and opportunity to reproduce is shortened by a week for every 100m of altitude. A mind-boggling array of techniques has been invented by flowering plants in order to encourage pollination and spread their seeds, and competition can be fierce.
A Painted Lady butterfly with Round-leaved Pennycress
Attracting insects
Colour is a key factor in attracting insects which, while feeding, inadvertently gather pollen and spread it, thus improving the plant’s chances of reproduction. Many alpine flowers only bloom for the two midsummer months of July and August, and the plants make the most of it with a brilliant display of livery.
Dominant 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
