Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Travel / Places to Visit => Topic started by: Peter Maguire on August 01, 2007, 12:15:22 AM
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Austria seems to be the flavour of the moment, and as we've just returned from there, I thought that folks might like to see what's available at this time of the year (late July). For those of us who are restricted to the conventional holiday times it is a little late to see some of the alpines, but I was pleasantly suprised to see what was still around.
We were based in Mayrhofen near the head of the Zillertal, southwest of Innsbruck. This makes a good centre for a week 's break, as they have a discount card available in the summer which gives you six days (or longer if you need it) of unlimited public transport in the valley and one up (and down!) trip in a range of cable cars which operate throughout the summer. As Mayrhofen sits at the point where the valley divides into smaller valleys (the Grunde) like the fingers of a hand, you can explore a different side valley each day. The local rocks all seem to be acidic - granite and various shales - unlike the limestone ranges on the north side of the Inn valley.
I thought that I would present each area as we explored it, although many of the plants were found throught the valleys. Firstly the upper Zamsergrund - you can take the bus to about 1800 metres at the Schlegeis dam and start walking from there. Feel free to correct my identifications, I'm sure I must have some of them wrong.
1. Schlegeis dam from the bus terminus. The upper Zamsergrund runs off to the right, leading to the Italian frontier at 2250m. We didn't get that far as it was meant to be a training walk, but reached 2000m along a very gently rising valley.
2. Campanula rotundifolia - common throughout the area.
3. Phyteuma hemisphaericum
4. Silene acaulis - a small patch found at 2000m which still retained a few flowers
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5. Crepis aurea (name corrected) - not very common, I only saw a few plants in this valley
6. Achillea moschata - this appeared near our high point of 2000m, there may have been more above, but we had to turn back to get the last bus down the valley.
7. Geum montanum - the only specimen I saw in flower although there were many plants with seedheads
8. Gentiana nivalis - again at 2000m. I know it's 'only' an annual, but once you picked out the tiny blue flowers in the turf, they looked like small jewels
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9. Leucanthemopsis alpina - these plants seemed common throughout the area.
10. View down Zamsergrund from about 1950m. In the middle distance is a large flat area which obviously floods earlier in the year; in July, the watercourses were lined with...
11. Saxifraga azoides (name changed) - close up, I took better general shots of the plant later in the trip.
That's all for tonight, I will work on the next day's batch for tomorrow.
Peter
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Another very pleasant European jaunt for those of us in the far south. Many thanks Peter.
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Lovely pictures, Peter, and I wish I was there.
There is one plant that I think is wrongly named though:
The one named Hieracium aurantiacum is, I think, Crepis aurea.
This is Hieracium aurantiacum
(http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g270/Peridot44/Hieraciumaurantiacumreduced.jpg)
More pictures please!
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Hi Peter!
Yes, you're right, Austria is SRGC's favourite for this year, as the Dolomites were last year.
I've just returned from a trip to the Brandner Valley and will try to show some photos
in the next days.
Meanwhile it would be great to see more of yours.
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Thanks for the correction on the i.d. Heather, I thought something wasn't quite right with the inflorescense not being multi-headed, but it was too late at night to start searching through the field guides again. I'll change the notation on the posting in case anyone gets confused.
Peter
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Peter,
Did you know that Saxifraga hirculus is a very rare plant? Beautiful photos!
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Franz,
Now you have me wondering about my identification - they were everywhere in damp places in the valley bottom, and also present in other side valleys (more on this later).
Identifying the plants and preparing the phots is taking longer than I expected - more to follow later.
Peter
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Peter, just a suggestion: if there is any doubt about the Saxifraga ID try azoides. This grows in and around streams; I have only ever seen the yellow form though it can be orange. It is very common in wet ground, has prominent sepals between the petals and fleshy leaves. The other Sax I have never seen and know nothing about.
Looking forward to more pictures!
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Saxifraga hirculus is very rare in Scotland, as elsewhere in its distribution.
This is an article from an issue of the Rock Garden by the late Bill Paton : I hope when enlarged you can read it....
[attachthumb=1]
[attachthumb=2]
Here is a photo by Heather Salzen from the Journal, of Saxifraga hirculus
[attachthumb=3]
Both Bill and Heather have done a great deal to protect the Scottish flora and educate others in its diversity.
You can see more pix of this lovely Saxifraga on Magnar Aspakar's website......
http://magnar.aspaker.no/
http://magnar.aspaker.no/Saxifraga%20hirculus.JPG
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Thanks Heather and Maggi for identity of the saxifrage. I'm generally pretty good with names of plants on the show bench (it's the labels you know ;) ), but put me in the wild and it's a different matter! I'll change the name to avoid confusing people.
Anyway, I've processed a second lot of picture so that I can get proper names for the plants ;D . This walk is from the top of the cable car directly above Mayrhofen on the skiing area known as the Penken. It is a fairly gentle walk along the lateral moraine up there to the Penkenjoch (2000m ascending to 2100m in about 2km). After a leisurely lunch in the mountain restaurant - tough walkers these Maguires - we descended to Almstuberl and then caught the lower gondola down to the village of Finkenberg before walking back to Mayrhofen. That's the scenario, so here's the photos:
1. Cattle grazing near the Penken lift, they may be eating the best flowers, but the fertilizer effect they leave behind is very necessary!
2. Arnica montana - fairly common over the whole area.
3. The lower Zemsergrund from Penken. The previous pictures were taken at the head of the valley which curves around to the right. Mayrhofen is below, left.
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"I love to go a-wandering,
Along the mountain track,
And as I go, I love to sing,
My knapsack on my back.
Val-deri,Val-dera,
Val-deri,
Val-dera-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Val-deri,Val-dera.
My knapsack on my back."
Sorry, couldn't help myself! :-[
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4. Unknown - I notice Thomas has picture of it as well, also unlabelled.
5. Phytuema sp - there were many Phyteumas about, this one I couldn't be sure of.
6. Campanula barbata - first saw this on the Penken, then it seemed to everywhere for the rest of the week.
7. Thymus serpyllum - this was fairly common throughout the area, but this was the best patch of the week, below a small crag near the path along the old moaraine ridge.
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8. Aeshna sp. - you may notice that this isn't a flower :D I think that this is the female of this species (still working on that). There was a male around this small pool as well, but either was constantly in motion or landing on my leg, which didn't help with long lens on the camera.
9. Tuxertal valley - around the curve of the valley is the Tuxertal glacier, more about this later.
10. Lower Zamsergrund again - the views were fantastic, and I couldn't resist another one.
11. Rhododendron ferrugineum - we walked past acres of it all week, but very few flowers were left, this was the best of a very tatty bunch.
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11. Swallowtail butterfly - a slightly tatty specimen, but there wern't many around that landed obligingly for photography.
12. Stilluptal - one of the smaller valleys, accesible by private minibus, but it didn't go very high, we gave this valley a miss this time.
13. Campanula barbata - detail
14. Scabiosa lucida - difficult to photgraph well, it looks good in a large group. This was taken as we began our descent through alpine heathland then meadow.
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16. Campanula cochlearifolia
17. Campanula cochlearifolia - detail
18. Lathyrus pratensis
19. ? Gentianella germamica
All these taken in alpine heathland just below 2000m on the Penkenjoch.
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20. Silene vulgaris - I find this is common all over the alps at this time of year.
21. Ranunculus aconitifolium - surprisingly unimpressive, this was poking out from under a duckboard in a boggy area of the meadow.
22. Geranium sylvaticum - there was a very large colony in the meadows at about 1900m.
23. The meadow area, stunning views again.
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24. Dactylorhiza majalis - I was suprised to still see orchids at this time of the year. They were present throughout a boggy area and the adjacent coniferous woodland. We saw a better colony later in the week.
25. Finally down in the valley, a reminder of autumn. Ribes alpinum berries - nearly ripe too.
That's all of this group. I have further photos if people are not yet sated with Austrian alpine flowers, but am away for a few days down south visiting friends and relatives. Will post some more after next week. I'm currently getting 'significant looks' because I should be packing.
Peter.
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Peter,
The unknown yellow-white plant is Hieracium intybaceum
and the next pictures show Phyteuma scheuchzeri.
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Franz,
Many thanks for the identifications, I would never have worked those out for myself! Sorry not to have replied earlier, but I have been away visiting friends and getting seriously behind in my bulb repotting; Ian Y would be disappointed with me.
Anyway, here are some further pictures from the Zillertal area, this time from the main side valley, the Zillergrund. This can be done by bus, a journey which terminates on top of a dam at 1850m, the lake being called the Speicher Zillergrundl (would a literal translation of this be 'Zillergrund storage'?). As with most of thse trips, there is a restaurant at the bus terminus, so the walk began with a leisurely coffee.
1. The first view is of the dam, I know it's an artificial structure, but I never fail to be impressed by the construction involved. The figure conveniently placed for scale is Mrs M.
2. Behind the restaurant, which is itself built into the cliff above the dam and accessed by a walkway bolted to the rockface are some plants which I am quite sure did not arrive by themselves; firstly Sempervivum arachnoideum. A very floriferous specimen which looked better than most of the willd ones I saw which were generally confined to the tops of large boulders.
3. Leontopodium alpinum; I could hardly go to Austria and fail to see Edelweiss!
4. The first 800m of the walk along the lake is through a tunnel, something of an experience on mountain walking for me but refreshingly cool, especially on the return journey. THe 'ghostly' figures are due to the long exposure time.
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5. The view up the lake to the upper reaches of the valley. The whole walk is fairly level, and although 1850m is not high for July, there was a good range of flowers to be seen. Further up the valley is an alpine hut, and as climbing is thirsty work they had......
6. a beer delivery! The truck completely filled the track and grounded on the stream crossings. I know it was a hot day, but those climbers must have been desperate for a beer.
7. Just by this cascade was an overhang with many saxifrages growing underneth it is the plentiful water supply. I'm mindful of my earlier saxifarage mis-identifiaction, but I think that this is possibly Saxifraga stellaris.
8. There was a colony of Saxifraga azoides, with one orange flowered plant.
9. Overview of the colony - the orange plant stood out a mile!
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10. A solitary specimen of Gentiana purpurea tucked under a bush.
11. I don't know what this plant was; the flowers were quite attractive in detail, but it was quite a coarse leaved plant with relatively small flowers in proportion. Perhaps it would suit a woodland garden.
12. Dactylorhiza majalis was fairly common here, in damp area alongside the path (there was a lot of run-off from the slopes above). This was the best specimen I found.
13. Looking back to the dam gives some impression of the habitat - open woodland, with occasional cliffs.
14. One of the pleasant aspects of a July visit is the number of butterflies around. This one is, I think, the misnamed (in English) Scarce Copper, Heodes virgaureae. I did wonder whether to post the butterflies under 'wildlife' but felt that if I left them here it would give a better flavour of the area.
15. Arctostaphylus uva-ursi in fruit. Already a sign of the approaching autumn.
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16. Two guesses on the identification here. The Geranium is G. pratense I believe, and the butterfly is probably Eumedonia eumedon, which has the english name of Geranium Argus!
17. Returning back along the track, we passed the overhang with the saxifrages again. If I'm correct and this is Saxifraga adscendens, then there were three species in this small area.
18. Another butterfly, Mesoacidalia aglaja, the Dark-green Fritillary.
19. Having returend to the dam and caught the bus to the restaurant in the valley bottom for a leisurely lunch (we take our adventurous walking seriously in the Maguire household), we continued along the valley floor at about 1200m. Even here one could find Sempervivum archoideum, and other alipnes in flower this late in the season. The meadows were full of Silene vulgaris again.
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20. I was pleasantly surprised to find a patch of violets still in flower also - Viola tricolor?
21. Meadow plants at this point in the season seem to consist largely of composites, this one I've confidently identified as Centaurea sp.!
22. And finally for this walk a specimen of Campanula patula. One problem with photographing plants in the depths of the valley in late afternoon is the low light levels which make it difficult to get a good depth of focus. It was at least shaded from wind, which makes this species difficult to photograph, and as I found that I was lying on an anthill to take the photograph, then I felt I should share the experience...
I have another batch of photos which come from a trip up onto the Hintertux glacier ski area, and will try to post these over the next day or so.
Peter
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These are super Peter, many thanks for posting them all. I just love that orange butterfly and the chequered one, but I love her name even more! :)
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Hi Peter, super pictures. dare I suggest that the male as usual is perhaps the best, cheers Ian the Christie kind.
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Hello Peter, Thanks for a really interesting thread with some great photos. I enjoy Kit Grey-Wilson's lectures tremendously for their mix of flora, fauna, people and views and you have got the mix just right too. :D
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Great, great show, Peter. Really enjoyed the photographs.
Paddy
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Thanks to everyone for their kind words. I have one final instalment of this epic to finish, but as I see that Ian M is just recently beginning to post his photos from early July, then I don't feel too bad about the delay.
The final flower trip of the holiday was to the Hintertux glacier which lies at the head of the longest of the side valleys from Mayrhofen (we're getting very closr to the Italian border here folks). The attraction of this area is that the summer lift system goes to higher altitude than elsewhere in the area, and there is the possiblilty of a differnt range of plants still being in flower. The summer pass to the area takes you to the top of the first lift, Sommerbergalm at 1990m. where you can then purchase a ticket to go higher, in two stages to the frontier ridge (and summer skiing area) at 3270m. On the day we were there, the clouds were on the tops and beginning to descend, so we just took the first lift to 2600m, marked Tuxer-Ferner-Haus on the maps. This was probably a wise choice as skiers were already coming down on the lifts by lunchtime and I could not be sure that there were any uncovered rocks higher up.
Ascending the first lift revealed some quite good stands of Rhododendron ferrugineum in flower at about 1850m, possibly becasue the slope is north facing.
1. Shows the first stop on the cable cars. There is a very large cafe here which does reasonable food. The next cable car station is at the top of the rounded grey-green area about 1/3 of the way in from the left of the picture in front of a snow field. I couldn't say exactly where the cable car station on this ridge is, as the clouds began to close in after this picture was taken.
2. Before proceeding up higher, in the local area were the usual masses of Campanula rotundifolia and this fine plant. I keep wanting to call it Gypsophila repens, but we certainly weren't on limestone, so any suggestions would be appreciated.
3. Arriving at 2600m one is confronted with this mess. Yes it's a glacial moraine and could be expected to look a little untidy in the summer, but there is extensive mechanical earth moving going on, presumably to enhance the skiing experience. However if you can find undisturbed moriane, even in this area, there was a lot to be seen. From the cable car on the way up, there were extensive patches of Cirsium spinosissimum, but it doesn't photograph well from 50 feet up. Also on the moraine just bwelow the cable car station were extensive patches of something yellow... More on this later.
4. Faith was restored by looking down at my feet. A large outcrop of rock had this fine patch of Leucnthemopsis alpina growing in it.
5. To return to the glacier for a moment, I wondered whether this was a consequence of global warming; there were extensive areas of the glacier covered with white tarpaulins, we're talking of areas of at least 500m by 500m here. Was this to slow the rate of glacial retreat?
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6. Having seen extensive areas of yellow flowers of the moraine below the cable car, I headed in this direction. This Saxifraga moschata was one of the first thing to be found, it was everywhere once you started looking, although in flat light not immediately obvious. The light was, however good for photography.
7. and 8. This was the yellow plant, probably Doronicum grandiflorum, but I'm not entirely convinced by the leaves that I have the correct name.
9. I have absolutely no idea what this was, other than the fact that it was attractive. In view of the fact that I had limited time in this area - I'd left Anne nusing a coffee in the restaurant and promised I'd be back within an hour - I didn't even realise that it was in seed, not in flower until I looked at the photos!
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More plants from this (fairly stable) scree.
10. Now this is Linaria alpina as I have seen it previously, with yellow markings on the petals.
11. So is this a variation on the same theme, or something different?
12. Another unknown. In my dash around the moraine, frantically photographing plants, I wondered whether this might be an Androsace, mainly because of the yellow centres to the flowers. On looking at the photograph, I'm starting to think it may be a saxifrage, but I don't know which. Now that's a terrible admission to make!
13. Cerastiums can be very similar at first glance, but I'm fairly sure that this is Cerastium pedunculatum
14. Geum reptans, the best looking specimen I found, but it's obviously showing the effects of the weather.
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Still on the moraine, here's one for Cliff.
15. Ranunculus glacialis, probably about three weeks past it's best, and the autofocus locked on to the foliage. Reviewing the photos, I should have grabbed the seed that was forming, it looks to be nearly ripe...
16. Another Saxifraga moschata. Not the most spectacular saxifrage, but there really were extensive shhets of it.
17. Back down in the meadows around Hintertux, with the clouds still lowering, we came across a lot of this; a rather pretty pink Phyteuma (?). I've seen it before in France and Germany, and have a feeling that it may not be Phyteuma sp. I'm sure I've identified it before, but can't remember what I reckoned it was.
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Hi Peter,
It's me again. I'm really enjoying your photos; can't get enough of them!
No 17 is not a Phyteuma. I think it is a Plantain - possibly Plantago media. If the leaves are roundish and all basal it probably is.
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Thanks for confirming my suspicions Heather, I was sure it was a Plantago until I started looking at the books - never a good idea - and conviced myself that the flower shape waasn't right for Plantago. I'll go back to the books and try and pin down the species. I definitely had it identified a few years ago, but the memory isn't what it used to be!
A final few pictures.
18. One of the pleasures of the summer in Austria and Switzerland in the summer is the window box displays on the houses. There was a nice purple/lilac petunia themed one I saw from a bus, which makes a change form the usual red geraniums, but this was fairly representative of the displays in Hintertux.
On our last day we decided on quick cable car trip whilst waiting for our transport back to the airport - it was cooler at 2000m at the Ahornhutte.
19. This was an attempt to photograph Campanula rotunidfolia in its alpine setting. Too many clouds to make a good photo this time, but as I was looking through the viewfinder of the camera...
'Flowers in focus - check'
'Out of focus walkers in background to give sense of scale - check'
'Small furry animal ruunning across path - check.....What!'
Ok it's a bit of a blurred photo of a stoat, and the photo of the Campanula is awful, but I thought I'd show it for bit of fun.
20. We had to pay for this cable car ride as our pass had run out, but the white Campanula barbata I found made it all worthwhile.
As Bugs Bunny used to say ' Th - Th- That's all folks!'
Peter
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Thanks Peter,
Really enjoyed your images.
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Would have better if the R. glacialis had been in flower ;)
You're showing some fine photographs yourself Cliff. You should be entering the AGS competitions at the shows, we could always do with some more competition.
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we could always do with some more competition.
So says, Peter, of the AGS comps... well, same goes for the SRGC photographic competitions... see the Show schedules for details!
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Thanks Peter,
I retain a slightly bitter taste in my mouth regarding the artistic section (of the AGS only)....
I entered quite a number of classes at a 'to remain nameless' show where my multiple entries were, in my opinion (of course), very poorly treated. This was at the very beginning of digital imagery and my 'home printed' digital pictures were totally dismissed by the 'photographic' judge even though they were (in my still very humble opinion) at least the equal of anything else displayed. This was further compounded by the fact that my two entries in the pen and ink drawing classes were then dismissed as 'photocopies' and not even judged...a fact I discovered only AFTER the show had closed when I was removing my entries...they didn't EVEN have the decency to denote them as 'Not as schedule'. These drawings had taken many hours to complete and a simple query to the exhibitor would have resulted in a wet finger being dragged right across each of the images in front of the judge. This may sound like VERY sour grapes from a poor loser, but I can assure you that I pride myself on being an exhibitor of alpine plants who ALWAYS accepts the opinion of the judges as gospel and would far rather never exhibit again than query a decision after the event.
Of course, there is still the SRGC photo competition......
...And I do remain totally committed to the AGS...I am, after all, an AGS Local Group Secretary and have been for twenty one years (man and boy)!
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As an aside....
Further to the incident recounted above, the schedules for the artistic section of the AGS were amended the following year to include parity for digital images AND the banning of 'photocopies' in the pen and ink section. My claim to fame....and it STILL hurts.
May I also state that I did not follow this up with any form of complaint to the powers that be....as I have clearly demonstrated since:- I would 'far rather never exhibit again than query a decision after the event'.
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Cliff,
I 've learnt to take the rough with the smooth. Several years ago when I first started exhibiting at AGS shows and was in section B, I entered a picture of Sorbus frutcicosus in fruit with autumn colour as 'one alpine plant in cultivation'. In a class of three entries (section B, mind) they awarded a second and third, no first as they possibly felt that the Sorbus photo was better (dammit, it was!). The Sorbus was marked 'not according to schedule - too large for all but the largest rock garden'
This of course was not the way the schedule was written, they wanted an ALPINE plant and not a plant for the rock garden, and Sorbus fructicosus, coming from fairly high in the Himalaya was certainly more alpine than what I believe was a crocus in second place. I said nothing, but had the last laugh when the Sorbus photo was entered in the equivalent class at the 2001 conference. It came first of about fifty entries...one up to me I feel.
I've had a similar problem this year with a three photo entry of Cypripediums - they occasionally did well, but as I had photographed them against a black velvet background, I did occasionally get feedback that 'they must have been digitally altered to remove the background' and that they were marked down accordingly. The other problem was that I grow my Cypripediums in black pots, which weren't always visible against the black velvet. Consequently they were marked NAS as they did not 'show the whole plant'. You could only have seen more if I had tipped them out of the pot to show the root system as well!
I have to say that in spite of this, I still persevere with the photo competitions and plan to hopefully enter some digital paintings this year, just to be b****y-minded. Of course the judging of the plants can be equally idiosyncratic.....
Many apologies for not mentioning the SRGC photo competitions, we never have any trouble with the judging there. ;D
Maggi, I'm planning to bring prints up to the SRGC weekend for the holiday photos competition and see if I can give Henry a run for his money.
Peter
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Cliff,
As an aside to your aside, digital images were always eligible for the AGS classes, provided that over digitial manipulation was not evident, but it was not clear from the schedule. A group of us, led by Jon Evans, who exhibit regularly petitioned to get the schedules updated so that they were dragged out of the dark ages. The recent changes were a result of that consultation, although the boundaries are further blurred by the fact that some exhibitors, me included, get digital photographs processed by a 'wet chemical' method.
I must say that I hadn't noticed the point about photocopies of black and white drawings being ineligible. This prevents people from competing in all the shows, and probably the Irish shows are the losers from this.
Peter
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Hi Peter,
How does one continually add an aside to an aside to yet another aside without looking remarkably foolish?
The point that I was trying to emphasise was that my drawings entered in that show were NOT photocopies, (I wouldn't have considered entering any show with such a print), but the original pieces of artwork and nobody saw fit to check....an incorrect assumption was simply made and acted upon.
Re: the digital images...there was NO digital manipulation whatsoever made to any of my images...the quality of (or the price paid for) the printing was the only criteria for possible discrimination.....anyway, all water under the bridge now....back to the real enjoyment of looking at photographs on this superb forum and not having to judge one against the other.
I do understand the problems that all judges face (having judged local and other group's shows), they all do a wonderful job and we couldn't have any such events without their very worthy efforts and decisions.
I admire your b****y-mindedness.
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Hi Cliff,
The BEAUTY is...no one will find your asides--they're buried deep in the Zillertal Alps.
No need to feel silly...
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Lovely imagery Carlo....asides like icemen buried away for all time....
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....or, in conclusion, 'Beware the aside cometh'.