BOTANY

In a country so mountainous that arable land barely amounts to 3% of its surface, the Swiss have rightfully earned the reputation of " Gardeners ot the Alps " by transforming even the most inhospitable scrap of not-too-vertical land into bountifull gardens and flowering fields. -this entirely by hand and with little more means than willpower and a tremendously green thumb.

The Swiss have done this for centuries, turning a much drier, inhospitable land into the green post-card-pretty place it's know as today. And because they recognized that the only thing standing between them and tons of roaring white death were trees, the Swiss have been practicing reforestation since well before the term existed. Now, contrairy to the deforestation trend that leaves most of the wolrd's forests shrinking, the forests in switzerland are growing, and in many valleys the struggle is to keep from getting grown-over and chocked out, -biodiversity included-.



Neottia Nidus-avis


Cephalenthera Rubra

Digitalis purpurea

Echinacea

Knautia Arvensis

The Trient valley itself is part of an alpine flora and fauna conservation zone where preservation laws are strictly applied. As such, introduction of non indigenous plants is forbidden within its reaches. This has kept it's biotop evolving as naturally as possible.

Plant cover ranges from mixed deciduous and resinous forest to above-tree-level lychens, with a variety of small clearings, -from marshy to mossy-, as well as wild-flowered alpen fields. The variety of mosses is particularly impressive, as are the number of wild medicinal plants.


Centaurée Montanea


Cirsium Vulgare


Sun Flowers





Lichen


Monarde




Gentiane


Edelweiss


Sambucus Nigra

The Wild Association's grounds are in part dedicated to medical botany. A garden of plants animals are known to use as self-medication is on-growing, while one of plants used in both " folk " and " modern " veteranarian and human medicine is already in use.


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