In search of plants between dry mead­ows and rocks

On April 18, 2026, Flo­ra Raet­i­ca kicked off the new sea­son with an excur­sion in sum­mery tem­per­a­tures. It led to Fels­berg, in the mid­dle of species-rich dry mead­ows and rocky habi­tats.

Led by Markus Bich­sel and Andreas Gygax, the group of around twen­ty peo­ple searched for typ­i­cal spring flow­ers. While four par­tic­i­pants record­ed so-called flash squares, the oth­ers delved into tricky species groups such as horn­worts(Cerastium) and vio­lets(Vio­la).

Botan­i­cal high­lights includ­ed the out­flow area of the Gross Rüfi scree slope with gray milk­wort(Leontodon incanus), low lying heather(Fumana procum­bens) and shin­ing bed­straw(Gal­i­um lucidum).

Learn, dis­cov­er, exchange

In addi­tion to excit­ing plant dis­cov­er­ies, such excur­sions also offer the oppor­tu­ni­ty to exchange ideas with one anoth­er. Melanie, who works as a social work­er and, like many of the oth­er par­tic­i­pants, enjoys botany as a hob­by, says: “I meet like-mind­ed peo­ple at the events — ide­al for get­ting tips from each oth­er.”

Rita, a land­scape archi­tect who has been with Flo­ra Raet­i­ca from the very begin­ning, also makes con­scious use of the joint excur­sions to broad­en her hori­zons: “I get to vis­it areas that I would oth­er­wise nev­er go to.” And she adds: “I always learn some­thing new botan­i­cal­ly too.”

On the move togeth­er for the flo­ra of Graubün­den

Flo­ra Raet­i­ca is an inspir­ing leisure project for Melanie: “It’s fun and gives me direc­tion and struc­ture for botaniz­ing. Or, as Rita puts it in a nut­shell: “A good group with real­ly good peo­ple — work­ing togeth­er on a won­der­ful project.”

The excur­sion was part of the reg­u­lar, free offers from Flo­ra Raet­i­ca. The next excur­sions and map­ping week­ends are already wait­ing — and with them many more dis­cov­er­ies.