Picos De Europa - Pyrenees - French Alps

[Vincent]

Ranunculus glacialis - I really love this plant and I took hundreds of pictures of it, getting a faster heartbeat every time I found another outstanding specimen in between thousands of mediocre plants (a little exaggerated, since many are very beautiful). It seems to be this case with most of the white flowered alpine ranunculus, many plants having small flowers and only one flower stem, e.g. R. parnassifolius, R. pyrenaeus and R. alpestris, and the best plants always to be found were there is enough moisture in the soil. Which makes me think, would the smaller flowered plants produce bigger flowers if they had more water available? Or are they just very variable? Or do the flowers get bigger as the plants get more mature over the years?

[Vincent]

@ Hoy Thank you for helping out! It's definately Ranunculus glacialis in that post, how sure are you about Saxifraga cespitosa? From the results on google it seems about right for half the pictures, is this species very variable? The cushions of these plants were very tight and compact. Growing in the french alps.

[Vincent]

Saxifraga oppositifolia
Geum reptans
Campanula cenisia

[Vincent]

Saxifraga biflora? Second try
Photo 2 and 3 - Saxifraga cespitosa? Or two different species? Second picture shows the dense cushion of the one already posted in reply #33
Arenaria sp.

[Maritfri]

Hi Vincent!

Fantastic flowering and very nice pictures! When in spring were you there? I would very much like to travel to these beautiful mountain areas myself

Marit

[Hoy]

Vincent, I am not sure - but Saxifraga cespitosa (or caespitosa) is variable.
Some forms I have seen.
The "yellow" forms are sometimes called var aurea or just S. aurea.
(From Svalbard)

[Vincent]

Saxifraga caesia
Salix sp. - this was the hairy variant, most plants had plain leaves.
Silene acaulis subsp. longiscapa

[Vincent]

Hi Marit,
I started in late june and came home at the beginning of august. I like the pictures on your blog, very nice!

[Vincent]

Hoy,

didn't even realize I was writing it in a different way, didn't mean to correct you The ones you photographed look very nice!

[Maritfri]

Hello Vincent, and thank you

I thought it was much earlier in the year. If we are planning a trip we may contact you and ask for travel advice ?!

Marit

Hi Marit,
I started in late june and came home at the beginning of august. I like the pictures on your blog, very nice!

[Vincent]

Androsace obtusifolia
I did not find many of the androsace's I wanted to see - A. carnea subsp. laggeri, A. pyrenaica, A. cylindrica, all in the pyrenees - but I did get to see A. ciliata there, and A. obtusifolia and A. alpina in the french alps, both unexpected. The last two are both easy to overlook, but nonetheless very lovely! I only found very few bigger plants of A. alpina, most were in fact tiny.

[Vincent]

Androsace alpina & Saxifraga sp.

[Vincent]

Senecio incanus?
Viola cenisia
Myosotis alpestris?
Leucanthemopsis alpina

[Vincent]

Phyteuma globulariifolium
Erigeron sp.
Lychnis alpina
Linaria alpina & Ranunculus glacialis

[Maggi Young]

Wonderful photos of the  mountain plants. Thanks!