Mount Kanin Slovenia

[henkw]

In August, I went with my family to Istria/Croatia and we decided to go one day to the Julian Alps in Slovenia.

Because it was a long drive from the coast, we had to find out how to get quickly above tree line. A cable car was the solution. Looking on the www, I found Mount Kanin.

KANIN CABLE CAR/Bovec.

Kanin is Slovenia’s highest and unique high-mountain ski resort, but also views extending to the Adriatic.
In summer, the upper station of the Kanin cable car is a very popular starting point for numerous mountain hiking tours and trips, The scenic trip with the panoramic cable car takes one from 439 m to 2,223 m offering unique views of the Julian Alps.

Henk Westerhof

[tonyg]

Nice images and useful information on one of the less well known areas in the alps.  Thanks!  It is somewhere I have considered visiting - now I am more likely to go!
Most of the plants in the pictures are familiar, Cerastium sp, Potentilla nitida, Campanula cochlearifolia, Papaver sp, Thlaspi, Achillea, Gentiana verna, but what is the very pretty Saxifraga sp.  Fantastic tight foliage, growing in a fissure in the rock?

[Maggi Young]

As a reluctant house-cleaner, I am astonished and slighty horrified by the dazzling whiteness of the rocks-- makes me feel somehow inadequate   The plants stand out like beacons against the background, don't they, making for super photos.

These cable cars are very useful, are they not?

 Potentilla nitida rubra is a favourite plant of ours. We have had one in the corner of one ofthe raised (concrete slab) beds for over twenty years.... once, when re-vamping the bed, we thought about moving the potentilla... we excavated carefully , down and down and down...when we discovered that its tap root went all the way to the base of the bed ( two feet/60cms) and still kept going, we decided to leave it where it was!    Then, of course, we were worried that our interference might have harmed the plant but it grows away, happy as ever, bless it.

[Heather Smith]

The Sax. looks like S. caesia just going over, if the foliage was grey. Otherwise Sax species are hard to identify. S. caesia loves limestone areas.  I was in N Italy, Carnian Alps, and up on the border with Slovenia. It was limestone step at well over 2,000m and a treasure trove of plants, including S caesia. That was in 1990 and I would love to go back. I can't remember the name of the mountain, but it stretched into Slovenia.

More pictures please, Henk.

[hadacekf]

It is Saxifraga squarrosa. Lovely pictures.

[Lesley Cox]

A lovely trip Henk and beautiful plant images. The rock looks a little like marble?

[Maggi Young]

The rock looks a little like marble?

Yes, it does, especially in the Saxifraga shot where there is lovely marbled veining to it. Just limestone, though, isn't it?
Where is David Millward when we need him?

[henkw]

Thanks everybody for the nice words and plant names

Here are my last plant pictures, I was only one and a half hour on mount Kanin  , because the we had to take the last cable car. It was a bit too far to walk down and I had to drive all the way to the coast of Istria.

I think it is not Gentiana verna  , the G. verna I have seen was always growing on a very wet place. This Gentiana was not.

It was limestone, the marble-look was dirt. The limestone was very white you need to wear sunglasses, it was hurting your eyes!

Henk Westerhof

Ps Maggi who is David Millward

[henkw]

My last picures

Some mountain impressions.

Henk Westerhof

[Maggi Young]

Henk, David Millward is a geologist. That is why I thought he could help with an opinion about the rock!

David posts in the forum and he also has excellent articles in the main site:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/monthfeature/march2005/content.html
http://www.srgc.org.uk/monthfeature/march2005/content.html

Really enjoying this "trip" with you , thanks.

[Matic Sever]

Yes, Saxifraga you asked about is squarossa.
This is not Gentiana verna but G. pumila.
There's no marble on this mountain. Only limestone 
Nice photos!

[Paul T]

I didn't get to this thread until now, so very glad it has been brought to attention.  Fascinating pictures, to put it mildly.  Must be an amazing place to visit. 

[SueG]

Great pictures, it does look amazing.
Isn't marble metamorphosed limestone - if so they may well look similar?
Sue

[Matic Sever]

Sue, you're right. But in this case you can find there only Dachsteins lime stone from Triassic period.

[Heather Smith]

The yellow poppy could well be Papaver kerneri which grows exactly as shown in limestone scree. Could be P. burseri, though kerneri is the more likely to me. P. kerneri is common on the limestone screes in the Dolomites and Carnian Alps and on into Slovenia.