A tour of some of Europe’s Mountains As many of you know we enjoy travelling and this year (2015) our goal was to visit the Vikos Gorge, Meteora’s Monasteries & Mount Olympus in Greece, and visit as many mountain ranges on the journey.

Our first real stop was in the Julian Alps where the Rhodothalmus chamaecistus was in full flower, as were Pinguicula alpina, Hepatica nobilis & Daphne cneorum. While there we visited the Juliana Alpine Botanical Garden in Trenta which was founded in 1926 by Albert Bois de Chesne and has been a protected site since 1951. It is now maintained by the Natural Science Museum of Slovenia. At an altitude of 800 metres, the site lay on a slope of Mt Kukla, and measured 2572 square metres in

extent. Around 600 different species of plants grow in the Garden in Trenta. Most of them are alpine and karst species including endemic species found only in Slovenia. We continued down the Adriatic coast with a few excursions into the Dinaric Alps and in Montenegro ventured into Durmitor Mountains, the road to Zabljak

initially took us along the Drina Gorge which was so narrow the road was carved through the cliff face, but where the sun penetrated there were a large collection of Campanula’s and Edraianthus graminfolious growing at the roadside. We went up a road that on the map looked like a strand of discarded spaghetti for fifty miles only to

find it blocked by snow, but locals told us of a rough track through the forest that would take us eventually to Zabljak, the highest city in the Balkans at 1456M. Here we saw Iris pumila ssp attica, Daphne blagayana, Soldanella alpina and both colour forms of Dactylorhiza sambucina. From there we descended the Tara Canyon with its beautiful floriferous meadows, through Albania to Greece where there were many beautiful flowers found, but far the best in my opinion was Ramonda serbica.

We returned through the Pirin

Mountains in Bulgaria where the Crocus veluchensis carpeted everywhere you wanted to put your feet.

In Romania crossing the Carpathians on the Transfagarasan Pass we found our way blocked by snow once more but faced by a detour of over one hundred

miles and many willing helpers we set to and cleared the road, but at the summit it was closed again for a hill climb event, but this gave us plenty time to botanise and there was plenty to find. Dianthus, Campanula alpina, Eritrichium Nanum, Dronicum grandiforum, Primula minima, Soldanella minima, Ranunculus alpestris, Linum

alpinum, Androsace chamaejasme, viola alpina, and Rhododendron mytifolium, to mention just a few.

Our trip up the Vilach Strasse to another High Alpine Botanical Garden was the next area of botanical interest, this was a narrow garden about 100m long on a cliff edge with a lot in flower and named and as we left we were given many packets of seeds. We finally ended up in the Dolomites and were tormented with roads being closed for cycle races and had to use the chair lifts to get high in the mountains to see flowers such as Thlaspi rotundifolium, Primula glutinosa, Lilium bulbiferum, Geum montanum -

We also saw Cerastium alpinum, Ranunculus seguieri, Potentilla nitida, Pulsatilla alpina and many Pedicularis species. We got back to the port in time to get caught up in the start of disputes and immigration problems.

Roma & Ian Smith

A tour of some of Europe’s Mountains As many of you know we enjoy travelling and this year (2015) our goal was to visit the Vikos Gorge, Meteora’s Monasteries & Mount Olympus in Greece, and visit as many mountain ranges on the journey.

Our first real stop was in the Julian Alps where the Rhodothalmus chamaecistus was in full flower, as were Pinguicula alpina, Hepatica nobilis & Daphne cneorum. While there we visited the Juliana Alpine Botanical Garden in

Trenta which was founded in 1926 by Albert Bois de Chesne and has been a protected site since 1951. It is now maintained by the Natural Science Museum of Slovenia. At an altitude of 800 metres, the site lay on a slope of Mt Kukla, and measured 2572 square metres in extent. Around 600 different species of plants grow in the Garden in Trenta. Most of them are alpine and karst species including endemic species found only in Slovenia. We continued down the Adriatic coast with a few excursions into the Dinaric Alps and in Montenegro ventured into Durmitor Mountains, the road to Zabljak

initially took us along the Drina Gorge which was so narrow the road was carved through the cliff face, but where the sun penetrated there were a large collection of Campanula’s and Edraianthus graminfolious growing at the roadside. We went up a road that on the map looked like a strand of discarded spaghetti for fifty miles only to

find it blocked by snow, but locals told us of a rough track through the forest that would take us eventually to Zabljak, the highest city in the Balkans at 1456M. Here we saw Iris pumila ssp attica, Daphne blagayana, Soldanella alpina and both colour forms of Dactylorhiza sambucina. From there we descended the Tara Canyon with its beautiful floriferous meadows, through Albania to Greece where there were many beautiful flowers found, but far the best in my opinion was Ramonda serbica.

We returned through the Pirin Mountains in Bulgaria where the Crocus veluchensis carpeted everywhere you wanted to put your feet.

In Romania crossing the Carpathians on the Transfagarasan Pass we found our way blocked by snow once more but faced by a detour of over one hundred

miles and many willing helpers we set to and cleared the road, but at the summit it was closed again for a hill climb event, but this gave us plenty time to botanise and there was plenty to find. Dianthus, Campanula alpina, Eritrichium Nanum, Dronicum grandiforum, Primula minima, Soldanella minima, Ranunculus alpestris, Linum alpinum, Androsace chamaejasme, viola alpina, and Rhododendron mytifolium, to mention just a few.

Our trip up the Vilach Strasse to another High Alpine Botanical Garden was the next area of botanical interest, this was a narrow garden about 100m long on a cliff edge with a lot in flower and named and as we left we were given many packets of seeds. We finally ended up in the Dolomites and were tormented with roads being closed for cycle races and had to use the chair lifts to get high in the mountains to see flowers such as Thlaspi rotundifolium, Primula glutinosa, Lilium bulbiferum, Geum montanum -

We also saw Cerastium alpinum, Ranunculus seguieri, Potentilla nitida, Pulsatilla alpina and many Pedicularis species. We got back to the port in time to get caught up in the start of disputes and immigration problems.

Roma & Ian Smith