I finally feel I’ve got started with this Juliainthemountains blog now, I hope to add lots more content on past trips and then trips as they happen, but all the advice about blogs says, ‘just make a start’.  My focus for the next couple of weeks will be to start to build up my portfolio of knowledge on my alpine flora, fauna and geology, needed for my IML,  so I’ll start a ‘curious mountain facts’ page on the blog to share this.

I found this photo of a broad leaved marsh orchid that I took above Les Houches in June 2014, for example, in my old files.  And this, about it:

• Dark green pointy spotted leaves
• Top of hollow stem often red-violet
• Protected
• Flowers May to July, found in wet and boggy soils 400 – 2500m

As with many marsh plants, the numbers of this species have been dwindling for quite some time. The main causes are the entry of nitrogen via fertilizer, drying out of the habitat, and intensive conversion to pasture. The western marsh orchid does not react so sensitively to changes in its habitat as for example the early marsh orchid. It is usually the last of the native orchids to disappear. This tolerance makes it a still relatively common species

So onwards…