Beautiful plants in the Dolomites

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Plant Travels and Excursions

We arrived June 28th and left July 12th. There had been a big snowstorm in the alpine areas two weeks beforew we arrived so there was still snow in places and the season was quite early. Although we missed many plants in full bloom such as Pyhsoplexis comosa we made up for it by seeing colonies of Ranunculus seguieri in full glorious bloom. I'll post pictures in batches but not always in any logical order, sorry.

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Richard T. Rodich's picture

Richard T. Rodich

Fri, 08/06/2010 - 10:18pm

Can my eyes get sick from "eating" so much candy?  Maybe I'd better stop...

Well that's just silly, and it's impossible for me to stop anyway!

Trond, somehow I missed that thread of yours.  Thanks.

Anne Spiegel's picture

Anne Spiegel

Sat, 08/07/2010 - 4:06am

Absolutely the last post - time for Cliff to get started!  We always head to bare spots in a meadow (used to do this in Colorado too), because they are usually colonized by a few plants not growing elsewhere in the meadows.  The "soil" here is amazing.  It looks like a very fine clay that forms a crust and then cracks.  The surface is so hard a hiking stick doesn't penetrate.  It's like cement.  When wet, it accumulates on your boots until you feel three inches taller and twenty pounds heavier.  But it can apparently be hospitable to certain plants.  This patch in the photos had only a few species and prominent among them were Ranunculus seguieri and Oxytropis jacquinii.

Margaret Young's picture

Margaret Young

Sat, 08/07/2010 - 5:38am
Skulski wrote:

Wow, I love the Potentilla nitida and the Oxytropis, especially.  I started the former from seed this year - would that it could ever reach the glory of those in your photos!

The Potentilla is one of my favourite plants in our raised beds and these photos of it "doing its thing" to such glorious effect in the wild is a real joy.
I wish you happiness with your seedlings, Lori, which I am sure you will enjoy.... because these pplants can be longlived.

I  would advise you, when planting out in  a permanent position, to put them somewhere where they can have a VERY DEEP root-run. They have a long taproot that can easily go down three feet and more in my garden!
m

Cliff Booker's picture

Cliff Booker

Sat, 08/07/2010 - 12:14pm

Anne has invited me to post some images from our recent 'tour of duty' in Corvara in the Dolomites, which began shortly after her own two week visit came to an end.  I will begin by posting some general scenes from this incredible part of Northern Italy and will continue (as time and tide allow) with plant portraits, views, wildlife and even a few 'arty' shots that I hope you will enjoy.

CENTAUREA SCENE
DISTANT PEAKS
CAMPANULA SCENE
FALZAREGO TRAIL
GERANIUM SCENE
NUVALAO TRAIL
ORCHID MEADOW
PEDICULARIS SCENE
PHYTEUMA SCENE
POTENTILLA NITIDA RUBRA

Lori S.'s picture

Lori S. (not verified)

Sat, 08/07/2010 - 12:43pm

Absolutely breathtaking photos, Cliff - each is a perfect scene!  Thank you so much for playing tag-team with Anne to continue this wonderful thread!

Anne Spiegel's picture

Anne Spiegel

Sat, 08/07/2010 - 5:29pm

Great shots, Cliff, as I knew they would be.  The picture of the Falzarego trail shows a large boulder in the right foreground.  It's exactly the type place where I found Androsace hausmanii this year.  The only other time I saw it was years ago in a similar bouder setting.  You can see all the crevices and that's apparently what it likes.  Please keep the images coming.

Cliff Booker's picture

Cliff Booker

Sat, 08/07/2010 - 9:41pm

Thanks folks ... a few more this morning ...

ACONITUMS et al
ACROSS PORDOI PASS
CAMPANULA CLOSE-UP
CAMPANULA GLOMERATA SCENE
CAMPANULA MORETTIANA PALE FORM CLOSE-UP
CAMPANULA MORETTIANA VERY PALE FORM
CARLINA ACAULIS ssp. ACAULIS
CLIFFS AND SCREE
CLIFFS AT VALLUNGA
MISTS DESCENDING

Cliff Booker's picture

Cliff Booker

Sun, 08/08/2010 - 6:50am

Another selection ...

FLOWERING MATS
FOLIAGE SNAPSHOT
STAND OF GYMNADENIA
INCREDIBLE VIEW
LEONTOPODIUM ALPINUM EMERGING FROM CREVICE
LEONTOPODIUM SCENE - QUITE PLEASED WITH THIS ONE!
LILIUM BULBIFERUM
LILIUM BULBIFERUM CLOSE-UP
LILIUM MARTAGON
MAUSOLEUM SETTING

Mark McDonough's picture

Mark McDonough

Sun, 08/08/2010 - 7:23am

Cliff, the photos are spectacular, as are the views, almost surreal in their vastness is some cases.  In the photo of "flowering mats", what is the pink flowering plants that compose those mats?  And do I spy a bright pink allium or two in that view?

Margaret Young's picture

Margaret Young

Sun, 08/08/2010 - 8:55am
Booker wrote:

Another selection ...

STAND OF GYMNADENIA

LEONTOPODIUM SCENE - QUITE PLEASED WITH THIS ONE!

 STAND OF GYMNADENIA : what a fine strong clump of the glorious fragrant orchid, Gymnadenia conopsea ---- it is conopsea in the Dolomites, I presume... not some other?

LEONTOPODIUM SCENE - QUITE PLEASED WITH THIS ONE!
: too right.... what's not to be pleased about!??

Cliff Booker's picture

Cliff Booker

Sun, 08/08/2010 - 9:08am

Thanks folks ... Mark, the landscapes are magnificent and quite unlike any other mountains we have visited.  The pink cushions are mainly Gypsophila repens and the allium-like flowers are either Carduus defloratus ssp. defloratus or a dwarf Cirsium sp.
The only alliums we have seen in the Dolomites are Allium schoenoprasum ssp. alpinum; A. victorialis and A. insubricum (and then only twice in the case of A. insubricum).

ALLIUM SCHOENOPRASUM ssp. ALPINUM

Cliff Booker's picture

Cliff Booker

Sun, 08/08/2010 - 9:21am
IMYoung wrote:

Booker wrote:

Another selection ...

STAND OF GYMNADENIA

LEONTOPODIUM SCENE - QUITE PLEASED WITH THIS ONE!

 STAND OF GYMNADENIA : what a fine strong clump of the glorious fragrant orchid, Gymnadenia conopsea ---- it is conopsea in the Dolomites, I presume... not some other?

LEONTOPODIUM SCENE - QUITE PLEASED WITH THIS ONE!
: too right.... what's not to be pleased about!??

There are also Gymnadenia odoratissima in these mountains but these are, as you say, a shortish, but fine stand of G. conopsea.

I was 'quite pleased about that particular shot of the eidelweiss' because profile shots of very thin-stemmed blooms such as these  can be difficult to capture at the best of times but in this instance the wind was intermittently howling and the rock was surrounded by nettles, thistles and other foliar dissuasions. Still bearing the scars ... !!

Margaret Young's picture

Margaret Young

Sun, 08/08/2010 - 10:55am
Quote:

I was 'quite pleased about that particular shot of the eidelweiss' because profile shots of very thin-stemmed blooms such as these  can be difficult to capture at the best of times but in this instance the wind was intermittently howling and the rock was surrounded by nettles, thistles and other foliar dissuasions. Still bearing the scars ... !!

Often the case that one must suffer for the sake of art, Cliff!  ;)

Sellars's picture

Sellars (not verified)

Fri, 08/13/2010 - 10:12pm

Anne:

They are spectacular photos.  I can understand why you go back there every year.

I was interested to read that you are using a compact digital camera.  I am convinced that they are much better for alpine flower photography than DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras.  Apart from the lighter weight and ease of use they have a far superior depth of field because of the smaller image sensor. As a result more of the flower is in focus and it is often feasible to get the background in focus as well as the flower.  I am currently using a Sony DSC HX1.

Anne Spiegel's picture

Anne Spiegel

Sat, 08/14/2010 - 4:59am
David wrote:

Anne:

They are spectacular photos.  I can understand why you go back there every year.

I was interested to read that you are using a compact digital camera.  I am convinced that they are much better for alpine flower photography than DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras.  Apart from the lighter weight and ease of use they have a far superior depth of field because of the smaller image sensor. As a result more of the flower is in focus and it is often feasible to get the background in focus as well as the flower.  I am currently using a Sony DSC HX1.

Hi David.  I know you've been in the Dolomites and can understand how beautiful everything is, more beautiful than the photos show.  Alan Bradshaw of Alplains Seeds was our houseguest once, and when I told him how much I admired his pictures, he showed me the camera he was using.  I wrote everything down and Joe and I made the camera our next purchase.  What a blessing it was to leave the old camera home with all its lenses etc.  It was quite heavy.  We don't normally use a tripod with this but we do carry a mini-tripod which is quite good when used for close-ups taken lying down.  Those are usually the ones I take, including the ones taken of Ranunculus seguirei in the manure field! Cliff Booker showed Joe how to get backgrounds in focus but I think the camera Cliff uses has more bells and whistles. 

Cliff Booker's picture

Cliff Booker

Sat, 08/14/2010 - 5:33am
Spiegel wrote:

David wrote:

Cliff Booker showed Joe how to get backgrounds in focus but I think the camera Cliff uses has more bells and whistles.  

More bells and whistles perhaps, Anne ... but still a tone deaf musically challenged operator!   :D

I insist that my best images were taken using a 3.4 megapixel Nikon 995 ... with a tiny image sensor and minute lens.

Sellars's picture

Sellars (not verified)

Sat, 08/14/2010 - 7:11pm

Anne:

We were back in the Strawberry Mountains in Oregon a few weeks ago revisiting some of the places we went together on the NARGS 2003 expedition.  It was on that trip that you "sold" us on visiting the Dolomites!

The flowers on Strawberry Mountain were a bit late this year and although we were there at about the same time as in 2003 we were too early to see the Epilobium obcordatum and Collomia debilis in flower.  But there were some nice Phlox and stunning Claytonia megarhiza.

Anne Spiegel's picture

Anne Spiegel

Sat, 08/14/2010 - 7:43pm

David, I remember that trip.  Beautiful plants and an astragalus I could not identify, most frustrating.  And I do recall discussing the Dolomites with you, and later hearing that you went there.  Lovely pictures - were you too early for the Penstemon spatulatus?

Sellars's picture

Sellars (not verified)

Sun, 08/15/2010 - 9:02pm

Anne:

The Penstemon on Strawberry Mountain were not yet in flower.  We had a very cool wet June here in the Pacific Northwest which affected both snowmelt and flowering times.  Today we were in the North Cascades and some Anemone occidentalis were in flower where the snow had recently melted. I had never previously seen it in flower in August.

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