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Alpine flowers, animals and birds

The epic film The Sound of Music may be associated with Salzburg but iconic scenes in flower-filled Alpine meadows can also be enjoyed on the Traumpfad.

A selection of Alpine flowers: Bavarian gentian; Apiaceae; white campion; alpine scabious; gentian; fragrant orchid; yellow alpine poppy; edelweiss; ground cistus; woolly thistle; silver thistle (Photos: Max and Frances Harre)

The edelweiss (symbol of the German Alpine Club), with its creamy felty petals in a star formation, may be the most famous flower but it’s only one of over 1500 varieties that all share an uncanny ability to survive extremely low temperatures. Easier to spot than edelweiss are blue trumpet gentians or harebells. Perhaps a little gaudy and much larger is the alpine orange lily. You may also see, growing heroically on inhospitable scree, the golden yellow Rhaetian poppy, larger flowered yellow ox-eye or the globeflower. Attractive even to those with the most casual interest in flowers are orchids, the most spectacular of which is probably the lady’s slipper orchid with its maroon and yellow petals. At the treeline, conifers dominate: silver fir, arolla pine and larch are the main species with dwarf pine higher up on the scree.