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Another curiosity endemic to the Ligurian-Maritime Alps is the wild and moderately poisonous marmot plum, also known as Briançon apricot. The stone of its yellow fruit was crushed to produce an oil that was once used to extract the active ingredients from rhododendron galls, which in turn went into an ointment for treating rheumatism. The confusing name ‘marmot oil’ gave rise to the mistaken belief that the fat of the animals has anti-rheumatic properties, leading to senseless marmot hunting in the 19th century!

Only extremely lucky visitors to the Maritime Alps will have the opportunity to admire the endemic saxifraga florulenta, known grandly in English as the Ancient King. A cactus-like plant with a sizeable basal rosette, it produces an ostentatious pink-reddish 20cm high bloom just once in its lifetime, after 20–30 years, hence the Latin appellation ‘slow flowering’; it expires immediately afterwards.

Superb alpine flowers carpet the grassy slopes in midsummer. One of the earliest, the slender fringe-petalled alpine snowbell, can reasonably be expected in thawing snowfields. The heat released by the pale purple-bloomed plant as it breaks down carbohydrates actually melts the snow. Legend has it that the flower was a young girl who lived for spring and wasted away during winter.