Botaniz­ing between moun­tain mead­ows and gorges

At the end of May, 25 Flo­ra Raet­i­ca employ­ees met for a map­ping week­end in the Safien­tal val­ley. They made sig­nif­i­cant progress in map­ping the 5×5 km squares. In the Val Uastg square above Thalkirch, for exam­ple, the map­ping rate rose from 53 to 63 per­cent.

Impor­tant find­ings were also made dur­ing var­i­ous “Dis­cov­er” mis­sions. For exam­ple, the par­tic­i­pants con­firmed the rare dia­mond-leaved orna­men­tal flower(Cal­lianthe­mum corian­dri­foli­um) near the Giu­valp (see pho­to) and a his­tor­i­cal find of grav­el sax­ifrage(Sax­ifra­ga muta­ta).

Anoth­er high­light was a par­tic­u­lar­ly diverse flash inven­to­ry with a stream, allu­vial for­est, dry mead­ow and path edges. The map­pers record­ed no few­er than 198 plant species over an area of 100 × 100 m.

Par­tic­u­lar­ly pleas­ing were obser­va­tions of rare or note­wor­thy species such as the Ger­man tamarisk(Myri­caria ger­man­i­ca), the white-felt­ed alpine cleft(Saus­surea dis­col­or), the alpine rachis(Tozzia alpina) and unusu­al­ly large pop­u­la­tions of the true moon­wort(Botrychi­um lunar­ia).

On the trail of the Walser

One of the most impres­sive excur­sion des­ti­na­tions was the excep­tion­al­ly species-rich “Bär­gli” moun­tain mead­ow above the Alp da Sarn, a Walser set­tle­ment that was once inhab­it­ed all year round. The his­toric access route has been pre­served to this day — steep, exposed in places and can only be found thanks to old maps and local knowl­edge. It’s hard to imag­ine that fam­i­lies once lived here and chil­dren made the ardu­ous dai­ly jour­ney to school in the val­ley.

Com­mu­ni­ty and enthu­si­asm

In addi­tion to the botan­i­cal finds and impres­sive land­scapes, the week­end in Safien­tal offered plen­ty of scope for pro­fes­sion­al exchange, mutu­al sup­port and shared learn­ing.

A big thank you to all par­tic­i­pants for their com­mit­ment. Thanks to their com­mit­ment, knowl­edge about the flo­ra of Graubün­den con­tin­ues to grow.