Shorter Walks in the Dolomites. Gillian Price

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ well before travellers. In 1789 French mineralogist Déodat de Dolomieu identified their composition as the limestone variant calcium magnesium carbonate, which was later named dolomite in his honour. As regards its origin, scholars have long puzzled over the abundance of fossilised shells and marine creatures embedded in the rock at such heights and so far from the sea.

      In 1860, with the theory of the biblical Flood long since rejected, German scholar Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen proposed their genesis as a coral reef, work that was further developed by Edmund von Mojsisovics. While the sedimentary nature of dolomite is undeniable, disagreement continues over the nature of its ‘mutation’ from limestone. The earliest theory came from Leopold von Buch in the 1820s. He suggested that the magnesium-rich vapours released from molten volcanic rocks penetrated the limestone, transforming it. More recently, researchers in Brazil have suggested the efforts of industrious bacteria in tropical environs. According to legend, however, the splendidly pale Dolomite rock is a result of it being coated with fine white gossamer woven from moon rays.

Plants and flowers

      The Dolomites area boasts over 1500 species of glorious flowering plants. This is a quarter of the total found in the whole of Italy and these blooms alone are a good reason to go walking in summer. Heading the list is the mythical edelweiss. Found in alpine meadows, its felt-like petals form delicate overlapping stars. While not especially eye-catching, its blanched aspect inspired the legend that it was brought down from the moon by a princess, to provide a memory of the pale lunar landscape for which she was pining away.

      Unmissable, fat and intensely deep blue trumpet gentians burst through the grass, and there are also daintier star-shaped varieties. Pasture areas also feature orange lilies and the wine-red martagon variety, which vie with each other for brilliance. Stony grass terrain is often colonised by alpenrose bushes, rather like azaleas, with masses of pretty red-pink flowers in late July.

      One of the earliest blooms to appear is the alpine snowbell, which has fragile fringed lilac bells that make it visible in snow patches, and it is never far away from hairy pasque flowers in white or yellow. Clearings are the best places to look for the unusual lady’s slipper orchid, recognisable by its maroon petals round a swollen yellow-lipped receptacle, while masses of purple orchids are common in meadows. Gay Rhaetian poppies punctuate dazzling white scree slopes with their patches of bright yellow, never far from clumps of pink thrift or round-leaved pennycress, which is honey-scented. A less commonly encountered flower is the king-of-the-Alps, a striking cushion of bright blue blooms reminiscent of a dwarf version of forget-me-not. A rare treat is the devil’s claw from the Rampion family, which has a pinkish lilac flower with curly pointed stigma that specialises in vertical rock faces. Another rock coloniser is saxifrage, the name literally ‘rock breaker’. Pretty pink cinquefoil also blooms on stone surfaces, its delicate flowers scattered amid starry clusters of silvery-grey leaves.

      A couple of flowering plant species are endemic to the Dolomites. Moretti’s bellflower (Campanula morettiana), with its rounded deep blue petals, nestles in rock crevices between 1500 and 2300m, while the succulent Dolomitic houseleek (Sempervivum dolomiticum) prefers sunny dry slopes and sports a bright green stalk and deep pink pointy flowers.

      Precious aids to identification are Alpine Flowers by Gillian Price (Cicerone, 2014) and Alpine Flowers of Britain and Europe by C Grey-Wilson and M Blamey, alas long out of print.

      Clockwise from top left: Unusual bear’s ear; devil’s claw; round-leaved pennycress

      In terms of trees, beech grow up to about the 1000m line before conifers take over. Silver fir, spruce and several types of pine tree mingle with the Arolla pine, which can reach 2600m in altitude and is recognisable for its tufted needles and reddish bark. A further tree of note is the springy low-lying dwarf mountain pine, a great coloniser of scree, while another high achiever is the larch, the sole non-evergreen conifer. It loses its needles with the onset of winter in a copper-tinged rain and can reach up to 2500m. It has legendary origins, created by the forest animals and dwarves as a wedding gift for their generous benefactor and queen. The fronds and bunches of wild flowers they made it from quickly withered, but the queen cast her filmy veil over it – reproduced each spring as the fresh green lacy shoots.

Wildlife

      One of the beauties of walking is the chance it gives you to observe the surprisingly abundant wildlife that inhabits these mountains. The easiest sightings are of marmots: adorable furry social creatures a bit like beavers, which live in extensive underground colonies and hibernate from October to April. In the summer months they forage for favourite flowers on grassy slopes, only returning to the safety of their burrows on the shrill warning cry of their omnipresent sentry, an older figure standing stiff and erect on a prominent rock.

      The widespread conifer woods provide shelter for roe deer, although often you only catch a fleeting glimpse of them due to their shyness. Higher up, seemingly impossible rock faces and scree slopes are the ideal terrain for herds of fleet-footed chamois: mountain goats with short curved horns like crochet hooks. Another impressive and even more rare creature is the majestic ibex, sporting its distinctive sturdy grooved horns. Due to overzealous hunters, they became extinct here back in the 1700s. However, healthy groups survived in both a royal game reserve in Italy’s Valle d’Aosta and the Engadine in Switzerland. Specimens were brought back to Dolomite habitats around 50 years ago, and there are now well-established groups.

      A more recent example of reintroduction is that of brown bears, which had also previously been victim of hunting. However, the dwindling nucleus in the Adamello-Brenta park has been slowly and successfully boosted by bears from Slovenia and the latest head count is 24.

      Alpine marmot

      Birdwatchers will enjoy the delightful small songbirds in the conifer woods, while sizeable birds of prey such as kites, buzzards and golden eagles may be spotted above the tree line. One special feathered treat is the showy high-altitude wall creeper. Fluttering over extraordinarily sheer rock faces in its hunt for insects, it flashes its plumage (black with red panels and white dots) and attracts attention with its shrill piping whistle. There is also the ptarmigan, a type of high-mountain grouse that nests on grassy slopes and makes sounds a bit like a pig snorting. In winter, with a perfect white plumage camouflage, it can patter over snow surfaces without sinking thanks to fine hairs on its claws, akin to snowshoes. However, the queen of local birdlife is undoubtedly the spectacular capercaillie, a cumbersome dark-coloured ground bird (similar to black grouse) that inhabits conifer woods. A rare sight for the lucky few, your best bet to see one is in autumn, when they scout for laden bilberry shrubs. An excellent guidebook is Birds of Britain and Europe by Bertel Bruun (Hamlyn: London, 1992).

      Warning There are two potential dangers in terms of wildlife. The first is bites from ticks (zecche in Italian), which may carry Lyme’s disease (borreliosis) and even TBE (tick-borne encephalitis), which can be life-threatening to humans. The problem is limited to the Feltre-Belluno districts and applies to heavily wooded areas with thick undergrowth. Sensible precautions include wearing long light-coloured trousers (which will show up the tiny black pinpoint insects more easily) and not sitting in long grass. Inspect your body and clothes carefully after a walk for any suspect black spots or undue itching, which is a sign that a tick may have attached itself to you. However, before attempting tick removal by grasping the head with tweezers, take the time (5 minutes) to cut off its air supply by applying a cream, such as toothpaste, or oil, which will oblige it to loosen its grip. If in any doubt, don’t hesitate to go to the nearest hospital, where a blood test for antibodies may be suggested after three to four weeks have passed. More information is available at www.lymeneteurope.org.

      The СКАЧАТЬ