King of the Alps (Eritrichium nanum)
We are experiencing a wonderful surplus of wildflowers this week on a tour of Dolomites with Greentours. I hadn’t intended on reporting on this journey until we returned home but today was such a wonderful experience I just had to share some of what we have been seeing. Every day has been a discovery of new plants that we had never seen, with hundreds of species recorded so far, but today was just over the top for anyone interested in alpines.
We spent the day walking at over 7000 feet looking over majestic scenery and crawling up crags to get close to cushions of alpine plants or walking next to meadows where flowers and butterflies were abundant. I’m just going to share a few of the images at this point to give a sampling of what we are seeing but for anyone who is interested Greentours does a phenomenal job of giving you a rich and thorough exploration of the landscape. We’re on the trail from about 9 to 5 every day and each day seems to exceed the last in wonderful experiences. I expect to provide a more complete sampling of the wildflowers in the future but this is a sampling of today’s encounters.
View into Austria
Silene exscapa
Geum montanum
Alpine Toadflax (Linaria alpina)
Phyteuma hemisphaericum
Alpine Poppy (Papaver aurantiacum)
Juncus jacquinii
Pedicularis verticillata
Soldanella minima
Ranunculus glacialis
Vitaliana primuliflora
Potentilla nitida
Potentilla nitida detail (note the green stamens)
Saxifraga paniculata on rock outcropping
Last, but not least, we have encountered a number of Gentians and several have the stunning blue color that Gentians are famous for. It seems appropriate to begin with the blue Eritrichium and end with a Gentian.
Gentiana brachyphylla
Wow! so exciting. Please ‘report’ back with more photos. I am very glad you encounter the Eritrichium! and that Juncus is such a marvel. I’m familiar with some from the Carpathians but not with the ones found only in the Dolomites. Looking fw to see more.
What an adventure! The flower finds and the scenery are exceptional, thanks for sharing them.
What a wonderful trip you must be on. It reminds me of a trip to the Rockies during wildflower season. I didn’t know whether to look up at the majesty of the mountains, or down at all the blooming treasures at my feet.
You are quite right about that. Numerous times I looked up and was amazed at the glory of the peaks.
That is truly fabulous and with the mountains as such a dramatic backdrop too. Oooh, you have me thinking about getting on a plane right now.
Wow, so envious. I think we might have seen the Pedicularis on the NARGS Rockies trip based in Salida. Great variety of blooms and the view towards Austria is spectacular. One day i will get there….
There are a couple that I know of in the Rockies and another species I’ve seen at Mt Rainier. On this trip we saw 7 species of Lousewort and 1 hybrid. If I were like some of the birdwatchers I know my life list of plant species got much larger on this trip.