Alpines - Image of the Day 2012

[ranunculus]

My photo of the day - taken high on the French/Swiss border above Le Tours - Gentiana purpurea with the French mountains in the background.

[David Nicholson]

Cracking picture Cliff.

[ranunculus]

Thanks David.

Image of the day ... a bistro sign in Annecy, France ... note the hanging sign to the right.

[David Nicholson]

Don't they say the French will eat anything!

Sorry French friends, just a humble Islander's joke

[ChrisB]

Love your pics Cliff!  Ref second one:  I'll send them some come winter....

[Hoy]

Orostachys iwarengi and Rosularia sedoides. They are very late this year!

[Tim Ingram]

This little campanula has produced a second flush of flowers, perhaps stimulated by the summer rains we have been having. It is growing in deep pure sandy grit.

  Campanula zoysii

[David Nicholson]

I must have tried this a dozen times over the years but the slugs got the better of it every time.

[ranunculus]

I must have tried this a dozen times over the years but the slugs got the better of it every time.

I can echo David's sentiments but must add a few to the total.  Lovely plant, Tim.

[ranunculus]

Gentianella campestris in excellent shape in the Haut-Vanoise two days ago.

[Hoy]

Cliff, are they all like that? I am familiar with the species but they don't look like that at my cabin!

[ranunculus]

Cliff, are they all like that? I am familiar with the species but they don't look like that at my cabin!

This was a particularly fine example, Trond, but most were less floriferous, shorter (some minute) and varied from white through pale lilac to this lovely dark shade.  Certainly different from the G. campestris/G. germanica examples that we see in the Dolomites.  I feel that the gentianellas are a complex group and find them extremely difficult to split.

[ranunculus]

Scutellaria alpina

[ranunculus]

The wonderful Paradisia Alpine Botanic Garden, Valnontey, Gran Paradiso, Italy.

[ranunculus]

Gentiana nivalis