Читать книгу Through the Italian Alps. The GTA - The Grande Traversata delle Alpi онлайн

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Vegetation

The early stages of the GTA are characterised by plants and flowers typical of the Mediterranean – the sea is a mere 40km to the south. Bushes of scented golden broom are abundant, as is divine French lavender, which grows as high as the 1500m mark. Pungent thyme, on the other hand, can be found along the entire trek. Its name derives from the Greek for ‘burn, sacrifice’, a reference to ancient funeral customs.

One group of aromatic – if rather nondescript – plants are the widespread wormwoods or artemisia, the scent of their clustered, woolly-looking flowers reminiscent of an anaesthetic. Varieties known as genipi are keenly sought after for their medicinal properties; an aromatic oil is extracted from the leaves, while flowered tips are left to steep in spirit for the renowned drink. Pickers need to have a permit, as over-enthusiastic gathering means it is now rare, and therefore protected. It can still be spotted growing in pockets in out-of-the-way valleys up to the 2000m mark. One rare type of wormwood used to be the essential ingredient in the yellowish-green aniseed-flavoured liqueur absinthe, which turned cloudy when water was added. Fashionable in the 1900s, it was banned once its toxicity was discovered; it was believed to cause hallucination and mental disorders! The popular French drink Pernod was manufactured in 1918 to act as a substitute. A similar flower, but with larger whitish or sandy-coloured heads, is a type of sneezewort of the Achillea family whose namesake – the Greek hero – was familiar with its therapeutic properties.