Told image

I patiently wait, lied down on the tones of the unsteady channel of gravel, a fleeting moment in which the afternoon wind does not shake the thin stem of a poppy (Papaver alpinum rhaeticum). The flower has already lost the hairy cap that encloses it, but has not unfolded its weak and bright yellow petals. So, it appears like a rolled up ball of paper. The wind is usually enemy of the alpine plants, because it dries up the habitat, increases the evaporation on the leaves and flakes against them small but cutting detritus. In this case, nevertheless, it allows the poppy to survive, freeing the petals from their covering, by now useless.

I hear the multiform stones arranging under my body and filling up all the cavities. But the initial pain begins to fade, when I totally dedicate my attention to the photographic subject. All of a sudden the time stop and my senses are paralyzed. I become integrating part of the natural atmosphere that surrounds me, as I would embrace it. I sink sweetly between stones and I come sucked from the thick roots of the poppy, swim in the pure water of its succulent leaves, go back the very small and slender stem, and open wide the velvety and gaudy petals irresistible attraction of life.

I wake up abruptly and return in myself: the precious moment of rare immobility has arrived and therefore I press repeatedly the releasing cable connected to the camera. The intense sun light by now high in the sky, filtered by passing clouds, ignites and donates relief to the ripples of the young petals creating a maze of lights and shadows.

How would appear the mountain without flowers? To the eyes of the hiker who without thinking faces the alpine atmosphere with only sport attitude and with the frenetic rhythms own of the city civilization it would not change anything. In fact, he carries, beyond the clothes and the super technical bag pack, an heavier burden from which it is difficult to get rid: the craving for getting fast to the top, overcoming always greater gaps and employing little time of the companions that are transformed curiously in rivals to struggle. A glacier tormented, a torrent in flood, a big canal with detritus, a marshy zone, a cliff wall, the incessant wind, in short all the natural elements, assume for him only the role of annoying obstacles that slow down the rise and increase the technical difficulties, but also the skill in exceeding them. Therefore he, too much careful to the frequency of his heartbeats, can perhaps notice the candid landscape of the soft Cotton grass, the bright globe flower that lights the fields or feel the strong smell of the wild garlic. But nothing more. Instead to whom, goes in mountain in order to listen the sounds and the noises, to observe the shapes and the colors, to breathe the smell and the scents, to perceive the breath, in only one word, to live it, the absence of the flowers would instill a distressing sadness, to which the irreparable breach of the entire vital cycle would join it with environmental consequences. The floral population of high quota is numerous and rich of strange and stunning peculiarities, that they only manifest to whom is able to come near to the land in order to observe shapes of life often very small, but nonetheless insignificant. The alpine flora’s habitat is hostile and strict, compared to the human conception of comfort and well-being. In mountain the medium temperatures are low, the thermal excursion between day and night is marked, the snow last for a long time, the wind blows strongly and for a long time. To all that we shall add the continuous and violent change of the land due to the cliff of rocks which are crumbling to the detritus moving, to the landslides and avalanches that destroy the grassy slopes. It’s apparently absurd but the alpine vegetation loves living in such environmental conditions and also being able to choose a better place it would suffer and assume an unrecognizable aspect, nearly disheartened. An obvious test is the alpine Star: cultivated outside its own habitat and sold in various tourist places it loses its white down, characteristic that has made it famous and appreciated. There are flowers which prefer the crests continuously hit from the wind, others prefer the cliff of rocks in water shadows, others sprout between arid channel of gravel, others bask unperturbed in the burning sun, others dip their roots perpetually in the water.

It’s the biodiversity, concept so much abused, so less respected, that manifest itself also for the vegetable world. The alpine flora, therefore, has adapted perfectly itself to the environment in which it grows that hostile factors have become essential for its survival.
Regarding the evolution of the plants it is curious and interesting to understand the exact dynamics. In truth the vegetable organisms do not put into effect changes in the metabolism, in the shape and in the aspect in an aware and active way. To every generation they can born, instead, "abnormal" plants with favorable characteristics, that overtake the others and replace them; or, badly bearing the competition of other species, they grow isolated, in places "even more difficult". Some plants have not been covered of thorns, knowing therefore not to be eaten, but they do not get eaten because they prick. It is worth the same principle also for the bitter gentians and the poisoned common monkshood. The flowers of Viola biflora bloom in various times: doubling the probability of being pollen, they promote the survival of the species. An accidental genetic anomaly has been revealed useful and has prevailed on the other shapes, having become normality. But each flower we meet during the excursions (if we get to recognize them) owns its "escamotage", without which it could not survive and would come overwhelmed from the other flowers, ready to steal its precious vital space.
Other characteristic makes the alpine flora unique and fascinating. The dwarfism shows up in an awesome way at the highest quotas. Hereby it would be impossible to find a vegetation with high stem due to the strong wind and the frequent snow storms; moreover the vegetative period, of only two or three months, is not enough for the growth of high and woody plants. Leaves and flowers of the willow, Salix herbacea, for instance, come out from the ground only during the short period of vegetative activity.
The majority of the alpine plants, because of the strict climatic conditions, do not exhaust its vital cycle (germination, growth, maturation of the seed, death) in one year, because it misses the necessary time. The survival, during the long winter season, is helped the snowy mantle, that it allows the light to pass and keeps the ground temperature always above the zero. Therefore many plants, in a run against the time, can produce gems already ready to bloom, as soon as the snow melts.
The flower, as known, is only a part of the plant. In the alpine plants, instead, the flower complex, reproductive organ is so developed in size, color and sometimes also in scent, than it is erroneously identified with the plant itself. The strong sun radiation, usually harmful, in this circumstance turns out winning, since permits the production of huge amounts of sugar that becomes, thru the synthesis, intense pigments. Moreover the abundance of sugars gets exploited for the development of thick and deep roots that guarantee a firm anchorage, but also an adequate water supplying. To assert that the climatic conditions present in High Mountain are similar to the desert ones may seem risky. But it is not, because the intense daily heat, the periods of drought and the nearly incessant wind promotes a premature evaporation of the water from the tissues. The alpine plants face the problem of the drying covering them of thick down and developing small and fleshy leaves. The bearing shape is another effective defense adopted: it holds the humidity, the dried leaves decompose themselves in humus, it resists to the bad weather and with its sturdy roots it anchors itself to the cliffs. The flowers, finally, that grow in the channels of gravel, risk continuously of being buried from cliffs or taken away by the same moving detritus. They survive thanks to a tangle of supple roots that cover or penetrate the detritus, making it more stable and defeating the mechanical solicitation. And, if that was not enough, they can even, if covered, sprout from other sleeping points, the so-called "sleepy eyes".
The alpine flora is only a small, but indispensable fragment of the immense and wonderful natural world. And, if during an excursion, we yield to the unrestrainedly temptation to pick a flower, we cannot ignore anymore that our simple gesture destroys in a moment a masterpiece of the nature.