Constanze Conradin collects specimens of Rosa canina (dog rose) during the field trip. Photo: Urban Angehrn, September 19, 2026

Discovering and Identifying Wild Roses in the Lower Engadine

In the sec­ond half of Sep­tem­ber 2026, 20 inter­est­ed par­tic­i­pants gath­ered in the Low­er Enga­dine to engage in an in-depth study of wild rose iden­ti­fi­ca­tion.

Con­stanze Con­radin from Botanik Exkur­sio­nen, along with the two rose experts Rebek­ka Moser and Stef­fen Boch, led the work­shop. In the the­o­ret­i­cal por­tion, par­tic­i­pants explored impor­tant iden­ti­fi­ca­tion char­ac­ter­is­tics such as the shape of the sepa­ls, the hairi­ness and glands on the leaves and fruit stalks, and the tex­ture of the spines. Using pre­cise cuts with a razor blade, they even exam­ined the style canal.

In the after­noon, they head­ed out into the field: Dur­ing a short excur­sion, the par­tic­i­pants were able to iden­ti­fy sev­en species of wild ros­es in the field.

The fact that the work­shop moti­vat­ed the par­tic­i­pants is also evi­dent from the sight­ing reports: While Flo­Rae staff had already report­ed a good 450 rose sight­ings in 2026 up to that point, anoth­er 250 or so reports have been added since the work­shop. Late sum­mer and fall are par­tic­u­lar­ly good times of year for iden­ti­fy­ing wild ros­es.

Flo­ra Raet­i­ca wel­comes fur­ther reports of wild ros­es in Graubün­den!

The work­shop was sup­port­ed by the Fun­daz­i­un Pro Ter­ra Engiad­i­na.

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My favorite flower is the daisy.

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Today: Carmelia Arias Linares, sec­re­tary from Ilanz.

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