Over the course of three days, 25 vol­un­teers in the Puschlav region col­lect­ed as many plant spec­i­mens as pos­si­ble dur­ing field trips, “Mis­sion Dis­cov­er” activ­i­ties, and rapid inven­to­ries. The results are impres­sive: In the 5x5-km square around Piz Can­cian, the cov­er­age rate rose from 0 to 88 per­cent, with 326 plant species now doc­u­ment­ed there. The Flo­ra Raet­i­ca project also made sig­nif­i­cant progress in the Piz dal Teo square: the cov­er­age rate increased from 17 to 69 per­cent, and the num­ber of report­ed species grew from 44 to 259.

Rare Species and Valu­able Records

In addi­tion to the large amount of new data, there were also some remark­able plant dis­cov­er­ies. Among the botan­i­cal high­lights were the round-head­ed blue grass (Ses­le­ria sphae­ro­cepha­la), which in Switzer­land is found exclu­sive­ly on the Sas­salb (see pho­to), as well as the sax­ifrage-like catch­fly (Silene sax­ifra­ga) —despite its name, not a sax­ifrage but a mem­ber of the car­na­tion fam­i­ly, which grows in Graubün­den only at a few sites in Val­poschi­a­vo and Val Müs­tair. Oth­er notable finds includ­ed the dwarf valer­ian (Vale­ri­ana supina), the Rhaet­ian Rapun­zel (Phy­teu­ma hedra­ianthi­foli­um), the rock may­weed (Min­uar­tia rupestris), Wulfen’s house­leek (Sem­per­vivum wulfenii), and the two-col­ored sedge (Carex bicol­or).

Quick Inven­to­ries and Mis­sions with Spe­cial Appeal

Quick sur­veys have a spe­cial appeal: Often, just a few hours in the field are enough to fill in gaps in our knowl­edge. At the same time, even sur­veys con­duct­ed in close prox­im­i­ty to one anoth­er con­sis­tent­ly sur­prise us with their very dif­fer­ent species com­po­si­tions.

But the “Dis­cov­ery Mis­sions” also offer excit­ing expe­ri­ences. On Sun­day, for exam­ple, it became strik­ing­ly clear just how dif­fer­ent­ly such mis­sions can unfold: The search for the sea sedge (Carex mar­iti­ma) was suc­cess­ful after just a few moments. No soon­er had the group arrived at the expect­ed loca­tion than they dis­cov­ered over 250 indi­vid­u­als of the species they were look­ing for. It was a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent sto­ry with the Arc­tic rush (Jun­cus arcti­cus): Despite an inten­sive search, the species remained untrace­able with­in the mis­sion perimeter—until some­one spot­ted it, of all places, direct­ly across from the park­ing lot, just out­side the perime­ter.

Explor­ing Plant Diver­si­ty Togeth­er

It is pre­cise­ly these kinds of expe­ri­ences that define the map­ping weekends—roaming through remote areas togeth­er, let­ting nature sur­prise us, and fill­ing in the gaps in our knowl­edge.

A big thank you to all the vol­un­teers for their hard work, as well as to every­one who orga­nized and sup­port­ed the map­ping week­end.