Читать книгу Walking in Austria. 101 routes - day walks, multi-day treks and classic hut-to-hut tours онлайн

14 страница из 96

Mountain Flowers

A cushion of moss campion (Silene acaulis) in the Zillertal Alps

A botanist with remarkable powers of observation was among a group of walkers I was leading in the Alps a few summers ago. When quizzed about the apparent anomaly of a tiny group of plants flowering in a confined site surrounded by an entirely different species, he explained ‘there are no accidents in nature; this particular plant grows in this precise location because here and here alone, conditions are perfect for it to flourish. A few centimetres away, and one or more of those essential conditions may be missing or dominated by others that deny its growth.’

The yellow Turkscap lily

(From left): the spring gentian (Gentiana verna); the fringed pink, or ragged dianthus, a lime-loving plant seen in the Karawanken; alpenroses in the Rätikon Alps.

In Austria’s Alps, as elsewhere, the range, diversity and distribution of mountain plants is enormous. Grouped by habitat, soil, climate and altitude, they are also limited by competition, by grazing or cultivation. And as we have seen, conditions that favour some plants on a given site may be absent elsewhere. Those conditions may not be obvious except to the trained botanist, but happily it is not essential to have a botanical background to enjoy the wealth of alpine flowers that add so much to a mountain walking holiday, for there will always be surprises.