Flo­ra Raet­i­ca relies on the ded­i­ca­tion of its vol­un­teers. Through their obser­va­tions, they make an impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion to doc­u­ment­ing the flo­ra of Graubün­den.

In our por­trait series, we intro­duce the peo­ple behind Flo­ra Raet­i­ca.

Today: Stephanie Gold­bach-Asche­mann, Seve­len, physi­cist / lab­o­ra­to­ry engi­neer, work­ing for Flo­ra Raet­i­ca since 2026.

This por­trait pho­to of Stephanie was tak­en on June 29, 2024, dur­ing a climb­ing trip to Kreuzberg VI in the Alp­stein. Pho­to: Simon Tis­chhauser.

Stephanie, what fas­ci­nates you about being out in nature?
In the past, the focus was main­ly on the phys­i­cal challenge—running and climb­ing. I still enjoy that, but now I’m increas­ing­ly dis­cov­er­ing the var­i­ous aspects of nature as well. For exam­ple, I won­der how geol­o­gy and plants are con­nect­ed, what that spe­cif­ic grass in the mead­ow tells us, or why that par­tic­u­lar species is more com­mon this year than last. That’s why I’ve tak­en a few botany cours­es late­ly. Oth­er­wise, you tend to just look at the obvi­ous and famil­iar things, even though there are so many fas­ci­nat­ing plants out there.

Do you have a favorite plant that grows in Graubün­den? Why that one in par­tic­u­lar?
It’s hard for me to name just one. I’m always espe­cial­ly hap­py to see sax­ifrage (Sax­ifra­ga), but­ter­worts (Pin­guic­u­la), and ferns—especially moon­worts (Botrychi­um).

Which sea­son do you find most inter­est­ing from a botan­i­cal perspective—and why?
May is one of the best times for explor­ing the out­doors: every­thing is still very fresh, and there’s already plen­ty to see. But some plants can be observed all year round—for exam­ple, the spot­ted fern. And when the weath­er gets real­ly unpleas­ant, read­ing books about botany is all the more enjoy­able.

Why are you involved with Flo­ra Raet­i­ca, and what do you con­tribute?
I’ve only been involved since March, and my knowl­edge of botany is still grow­ing. That’s why I’m grate­ful for any cor­rec­tions, tips, and oth­er feed­back regard­ing the project. For­tu­nate­ly, plant obser­va­tions report­ed ear­li­er can also be retroac­tive­ly assigned to the Flo­ra Raet­i­ca project start­ing in 2021, which allowed me to con­tribute right away. As a book lover, I’d also be very hap­py to con­tribute some­thing to the pub­li­ca­tion mark­ing the 100th anniver­sary in 2032.

What do you par­tic­u­lar­ly like about work­ing on this project?
I espe­cial­ly enjoy the live­ly con­ver­sa­tion on the Sig­nal chat. It’s always nice to see the dis­cov­er­ies and feel how excit­ed the par­tic­i­pants are.

What does a suc­cess­ful day in the field mean to you?
Of course, I’m hap­py when I dis­cov­er a rare species or can con­firm the pres­ence of a species, but the over­all expe­ri­ence is actu­al­ly even more impor­tant to me. In June, for exam­ple, I spent two days in the Low­er Enga­dine. Plants, moun­tains, spend­ing the night in a moun­tain hut—that’s pure lux­u­ry!