Flora & Fauna Kategorien: Flora FLORA & Fauna Taxonomy

Also known as Swiss stone pine or Arolla pine, the cembra pine is a five-needled pine and favours shady locations.
Together with the larch, the cembra pine is often found as …

Mountain pines dominate a large part of the National Park forests.
The mountain pine is the most common tree in the area of the Pass dal Fuorn. There are two varieties: …

In the National Park, there are practically no forests where only spruce grow.
In the National Park there are fewer spruce than in other regions of the Alps. Stands of spruce …

In the Engadine, the autumnal golden-yellow colouring of the larch forests is a wonderful sight.
Of all the conifers growing in the region, the larch in its different stages is the …

Unmistakable emblem of the Alpine flora.
Over the last two centuries edelweiss was picked in vast quantities, to the extent that it was almost exterminated. In its natural surroundings it is …

A relatively rare flower in the National Park.
This attractive member of the Orchid family grows on calcareous soil in open woodland. It is rarely found in the National Park, and …

The cowberry is widely spread throughout the mountain pine forests of the National Park, whereas the bilberry or whortleberry avoids calcareous soils.
The leaves of the cowberry are shiny and “leathery”. …

Mountain avens is one of the most widespread plants in the National Park.
Carpets of this arcto-alpine plant cover wide areas of the National Park’s alpine meadows. Its woody stems creep …

Fairy’s thimble bellflowers are light blue. The basal leaves are rounded and toothed. Fairy’s thimble is a spreading plant which grows on limestone and dolomite rocks and screes, embedding itself …

These lilac and orange-coloured flowerheads adorn the alpine meadows in July.
The alpine aster has adapted itself to calcareous soils. It grows on open meadows such as at Margunet or Murter, …

A  plant much talked about!
A lot of visitors ask about this yellowy-orange to orange plant, up to 40cm tall, that flowers abundantly in July and August. Pinnate-leaved ragwort is an …

Both the black and the rosy vanilla orchid belong to the Orchid family.
You are almost sure to come across the blackish-purple vanilla orchid when walking in grassy, limestone meadows above …

A natural wonder.
At the Fuorcla Val dal Botsch the Rhaetian poppy grows in the midst of steep screes at 2650m altitude. Limestone debris is an extremely hostile environment, where only …

A dainty, but very resistant plant.Alpine toadflax belongs to the Figwort family. This robust plant grows on limestone or dolomite screes up to 3000m altitude. In the National Park you …

A relic from the Ice Age
In Switzerland, the pygmy buttercup is only found in the snowy valleys of the Macun plateau. Its little yellow flowers open in July or August.

Glacier crowfoot is a plant of arctic origin and grows exclusively on acid soils, such as on the Macun plateau.
It favours altitudes above 2300m. The pink tint on the petals …

It can be advantageous to be small. Moss campion grows in compact, moss-like cushions on open grassland and scree, mainly on limestone and dolomite. The little pink flowers are carried …

Their scent gives these plants away!
Daphne striata (above)
Daphne mezereum (below)

Common mezereon (Daphne mezereum) and striated mezereon (Daphne striata): both these daphne species are small shrubs, and are poisonous. In the …

A little gem that grows at very high altitudes but is quite scarce.
Swiss androsace anchors itself in rock crevices by means of a long taproot that enables it to draw …

This climbling plant winds itself around trees and shrubs, reaching up to 2m.
In June and July, the alpine clematis bears blue-white flowers, measuring 4 – 6cm. As it scrambles through …