where i live out in the country there are some spectacular wild flowers to be seen. i would love to know what they are. anyone know an "I-Spy" type book i could get to put names to these beautiful creations?
also you can get a tour by a local specialist mushroom man on spotting fungi. trouble is it is in Swiss German so not much use to me.

Hi Cricketer,

A really good book is Our Alpine Flora by Elias Landolt translated by K M Urbanska.

Good luck with your flower hunting!


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Our-Alpine-F.../dp/3859020986

Oh by the way... I do not know if this will help http://www.wsl.ch/swissfungi/chmyklinks-de.ehtml

If you click on the links it will give you Mushroom hunters websites- maybe contact them and ask the question?

gal xx

For the lowlands
D.Aichele Was blüht denn da? Der grosse bunte Kosch
Kosmos Natur Führer ISBN 3-440-03724-X
is worth looking at. Sorted by colour of flowers which is a great help for a layman.

Hi,

I'm not sure about guided tours, but you can have mushrooms checked out by the local authorities before eating them. You might find what you're looking for on:
http://www.vapko.ch/fr/

Hi all,

This is my first spring in Switzerland, and I would like to get out and about to see Swiss alpine flora and spring flowers. I read that there is a great variety. Any suggestions for places to go?

I'm based in Zürich and car-less, so bicycle days out, and direct public transport journeys are best. But doing a car-rental for a nice place is no big problem either.

On the same topic, anyone have recommendations for English-language books on Swiss flora and natural history? (I'm looking for a book with good color photos/illustrations so that I can identify trees and vegetation and flowers, not the dense text plus b/w line-drawings type of book).

Thanks,
Paul.

Sorry don't have any book to recommend but I found this pretty interesting:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ca...of_Switzerland

You'll probably have to wait a bit until Spring actually reaches the alpine regions. One good way to check is to find out when the road passes (Gotthard, San Bernardino, Flüela etc.) are opened - usually happens around May/June, some lower passes maybe a bit earlier. Before that you're not going to find much in the way of spring flowers, they'll be buried under meters of snow
Here's the link to the Touring Club of Switzerland, they inform regularly when which passes are opened for traffic:

http://www.tcs.ch/main/de/home/verke...e_tunnels.html

Edit: if you scroll down to the bit "Hauptpässe" you'll see that quite a few of the lower road passes are already opened ("frei")

At Schynige Platte, they have an Alpine flower garden if you don't mind 'tame' flowers, but there are also plenty of wild ones nearby.

It is too early for the high alpine flowers but there's some magnificent wild spring flowers out now at lower levels. Around us where it's more sheltered there's wild daffodils coming up plus wild primroses, cowslips, wood anemones, liverwort (hepatica), violets and cyclamen.

I can never remember where we saw what, but having consulted Mr. Longbyt, it was above Amden over the Walensee where we saw the some of the most beautiful meadows I've ever seen - thick with flowers, like a carpet - orchids, gentians, wonderful. End of May or beginning of June. Our boots were bright yellow afterwards.
Above Tanzboden in Toggenburg (and elsewhere too of course) as the snow melts, there is the white edge of a snowfield, then a strip which melted yesterday which is brown with tiny green spots, then a patch which melted the previous day with small green shoots and, lo and behold, the strip where the snow had melted the day previous to that is a field of crocuses. Unbelievable. You can almost see them growing.
Happy hunting.

Thanks, all, for ideas.

@Longbyt - your description of an alpine meadow made me want to be there. Not so long to wait. Thanks for the suggestion.

By the way, while an appropriate crowd is gathered, maybe I could ask a not-quite-related question. I have two herb-pot sets. One is going on my kitchen window with herbs. But space issues mean the other is going to my living room, and I was wondering about fragrant air-freshening plants that could live indoors in a small herb pot. Any suggestions? I'm specifically looking for something that puts a bit of tang or cleanness into the air,

Paul.

Lavender
Jasmin
Geraldton Wax

Here are some photos of the plants to give you an idea of the look & size.
http://s649.photobucket.com/albums/u...albumview=grid

like Longbyt, I can never remember the names of the different flowers but my aunty is very good at cataloging them. There is a forest clearing near where she's from in Thurgau which is ablaze with these (see link below) for about two weeks in spring. She's taken me before and it's really very impressive. I'll ask her and report back, Peebix.

http://www.bergblumenwandern.ch/Foto...z/gross/03.htm

Thanks, ACM. I'm not so keen on lavender in a tiny pot, although your photo looks good (in fact all your photos look good). Maybe I just haven't worked enough on pruning the lavender before.

I had a Jasmin before I relocated. It was a resilient variety called 'Maid of Orleans'. When the flowers were out and the day was right, it could fill a small room with fragrance (it was about 2' tall).

Never heard of Geraldton Wax! Sounds like a Victorian product that was used for polishing banisters, but I see it's a plant from Western Australia. I will investigate and try to find it. Thanks for the tip.

I have an excellent guide book 'Plants & Flowers of Great Britain and Northern Europe' by Jean-Denis Godet. (ISBN 3-576-80003-4)

It is available on Amazon.de but should also be available elsewhere as it is published in Bern.

It has over 3000 colour photos and an identification guide.

hi Peebix, so I've asked my aunty about the alpine flora and spring flowers. The ones I referred to in my previous post apparently don't bloom until late May or early June depending on how mild spring is.

But then she told me about a nice hike she'd done recently in the eastern part of Switzerland, near Schleitheim, where she'd seen what she said looked like a carpet made of flowers. She was very sketchy on the details of where, but going by her description I found this link (in German but includes map) which seems to explain the route:

http://touren.topin.travel/tour/märz...im-B00304.html

She did say three things about the Schleitheim hike: to keep alongside the river initially before going up through the forest to the highest possible point; that she'd been told these particular flowers won't be blooming like this much longer eg if you'd wanted to see them to go this weekend; and to remember to take ID because it's close to the border and the authorities have been known to check your papers.

Thanks Bartholemew, almost missed this post, but I like the sound of visiting a little out-of-the-way place and it's on my hit-list now. In fact, I have been amazed by all the spring flower color that surrounds me just on my walk in to work in Zürich. Many gardens seem to have primroses (maybe) growing in the grass - light purple and yellow flowers. It seems like the grass here must be deliberately sown with these flowers, because they are so plentiful and common in gardens, or maybe it's everyday Swiss magic.

Spring flowers as far as the eye could see!
Although the flowers blooming at the moment are mostly quite 'ordinary' the sheer numbers and contrasts of colour are simply amazing.

Today we were on the Rigi in central Switzerland - in the lower meadows the lush green grass was dotted with dandelions, lesser celandines, buttercups and cuckoo flowers beneath the fruit trees loaded with blossom, in damper spots the bright yellow of the marsh marigolds.

Entering the forest, there are wood anemones, wood sorrel, butterbur, we spotted a couple of violets and coltsfoot. Up higher, where the snow has only just melted, a carpet of crocuses appears. Coming down the path again we saw our first two spring gentians.

Route
Train to Küssnacht am Rigi. By car up to Seebodenalp. Walk up to Rigi Staffel. ca. 700m altitude difference.
The path was easy to follow but had frozen snow quite deep in some places. (we could have done with an ice pick once or twice.) From Staffel we strolled up to Rigi Kulm to enjoy the view down over the lakes and to the mountains of central Switzerland and the area of the rockfall above Goldau.
We then walked back along the ridge to Rigi Känzeli. On this stretch, looking to the left of the path, we saw the best 'crocus meadow' of the day. It was hard, from a distance, to be certain which was snow and which patches were flowers.

From Känzeli we took the path down through the woods. Occasionally some snow patches, but softer than in the morning. Easy walking but the poles were useful from time to time. Shortly after leaving the woods we saw the gentians. The path goes over the meadows and at Altruedisegg we stopped for hot Ovomaltine 'country style’ (drunk out of a ‘Kächeli’ - bowl - instead of a glass or a cup). A last flat bit of walking back to the Seebodenalp and the car.

A wonderful day.

To see these particular flowers in the meadows you'll have to hurry. The grass will probably soon be cut for the first time. However, shortly after that the next varieties will be out. Keep your eyes open and let us know how things are coming along if you are out walking.

Enjoy spring.

If you missed them first time round, you can see the repeat at 1200m above Egg (Near Einsiedeln Kanton Schwyz) now.
No gentians or crocuses but all the others are there.
Egg > Stöcklikrüz > Egg
If you come down the first bit towards Willerzell, watch for the 'turn off' for the old track through the woods. (Swiss 704102 223448 1067m according to Mr Longbyt who knows about such things!)
The path is no longer marked with yellow signs but is obviously still walked. A bit muddy in places but before you have to go back on the tarred road there's a nice spot where you can paddle and clean your boots!