Beautiful plants in the Dolomites

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Favorites  on a favorite trail

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Sorry, last three pictures are Pulsatilla vernalis.  More pictures later today.

[Lori S.]

Beautiful!  Sounds idyllic... beautiful scenery, exquisite flowers, and a little exercise between scrumptious meals!   

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The food is so wonderful at our hotel that you have to walk every day, not that that's a hardship with plants like these.
More plants on our favorite (among others) trail.

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And some more.......

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And some orchids on the trail back to the car.  A nice way to end the day.

[Booker]

You are magically transporting me back to Della Creste, Anne ... and it's 3am here in Lancashire, wide awake with heartburn and an attack of 'homesickness' for the Dolomites.  Super images - my compliments to Joe.

[Spiegel]

Another day in the high meadows.  The Italians do a wonderful job with the trails and they are very conscious of erosion and other problems. Cattle are grazed in high meadows so there is a ready supply of manure.  In this spot a large bare spot had obviously developed and a thick covering of manure and straw was used.  It's an area where we frequently find small clumps of Ranunculus seguieri in small bare spots.  This year we found sensational plants of R. seguieri and Oxytropis jacquinii growing where the area had been manured.  I called it "plants on steroids".  I've never seen such sensational bloom, but the plants themselves weren't larger - just better bloom.  So nature can be improved???   

[Spiegel]

You are magically transporting me back to Della Creste, Anne ... and it's 3am here in Lancashire, wide awake with heartburn and an attack of 'homesickness' for the Dolomites.  Super images - my compliments to Joe.

/ Cliff, I know what you mean.  I feel the same way when I look at the pictures and wish I could be back in more than memory - especially since the heat and humidity continue here.

[RickR]

Sensational is right, Anne!  Especially like the variation of Rhodiola with the red accents.  I didn't know R. glacialis was more than just white.  Thanks again.

[Hoy]

Sensational is right, Anne!  Especially like the variation of Rhodiola with the red accents.  I didn't know R. glacialis was more than just white.  Thanks again.

Take a look here, Rick!
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=360.0

Although some of the flowers are familiar many are not. And the settings are very unfamiliar!

[McDonough]

More great stuff Anne, really like the orchid pics, particularly Nigritella.  I had to show my wife some of the stunning scenery photos, the shot of Rifugio is hard to believe!!! I'm aching to go there!

Couple questions on your pics, is photo #539 an Anaphalis?  And 543-Thlaspi, is this really an Erysimum?

My goodness, the compact alpine perfection of Ranunculus seguieri is amazing, certainly on par with the famed New Zealand Ranunculids.

[Hoy]

539 looks like a Saussurea alpina. Here is an example from Norway.

[Spiegel]

More great stuff Anne, really like the orchid pics, particularly Nigritella.  I had to show my wife some of the stunning scenery photos, the shot of Rifugio is hard to believe!!! I'm aching to go there!

Couple questions on your pics, is photo #539 an Anaphalis?  And 543-Thlaspi, is this really an Erysimum?

My goodness, the compact alpine perfection of Ranunculus seguieri is amazing, certainly on par with the famed New Zealand Ranunculids.

  Mark, the 539 is a Sausssurea, probably alpina.  The other is definitely not a Thlaspi and probably an Erysimum.  I'm not great at putting the names on the pictures, and I couldn't find my notes.

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P.S. to Mark.  I've never seen Ranunculus seguieri as we saw it this year, which is another way of saying the mountains are never the same, my standard answer to people who are shocked we keep going back to the same place year after year.  I think Cliff would agree: it's always different.  I have to admit that lying down on 6" of straw and manure would not normally be my idea of fun but most of it was quite dry.  I just thought it would be good to show how some alpines  respond to fertilizer.  The flowering was really incredible (this is usually a plant of limestone screes), but the plants maintained their compactness.
More pictures later and then I hope that Cliff will weigh in with pictures of what everything looked like the two weeks after we left.