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Leontopodium alpinum (Asteraceae)

A remarkable flower. Not only having it become emblematic of both SwiCerland and the profession of Alpine mountain guides. Because of its quite involved structure. On account of its alleged rarity and threatened survival as a species. And because it is able to withstand high mountain elevations.

This perennial heliophytic herb growing up to 20 cm (8 in) high can be seen in the European Alps, the Tatra and Balkan Mountains, the Pyrenées, on limy soils, stony meadows and even on rocks. It is usually found between 1.000 and 3.400 m (3,000-10,000 ft).

It is an architectural masterpiece, technically known as a capitule of capitules. Indeed, only superficially does it resemble a flower. It is actually an inflorescence, made of numerous tiny florets. The inflorescence consists of two to ten small capitula compressed at the apex of the stem. Tiny florets composing them are arranged in spirals obeying the Fibonacci sequences of numbers, each being the sum of the two preceding ones in the series. This inflorescence is surrounded by five to nine densely foliaceous bracts, white in aspect. They are covered by a layer of filamentous hair, a fleece protecting the plant not only from freezing cold and dehydration, also from exposure to strong ultraviolet sunlight.

The edelweiss is a reservoir of potentially beneficial chemicals that folk medicine has drawn upon for centuries: from memory-enhancing ones, that may help Alzheimer patients, to remedies for abdominal disorders, angina pectoris and other heart diseases, bronchitis, diarrhoea, dysentery, fever, pneumonitis, rheumatic pain, tonsillitis, and various cancers.

Let me share in closing a recollection from about half-a-century ago. My family and I were spending the summer in the Haute-Provence, near Digne. A few kilometers upriver on the Bléone, next to this torrent stand twin summits named, for their shape, Cloches de Barles (the Bells of Barles), 1,885 and 1,909 m-high — about 6,000 ft.

I climbed one of the two. Except for watching my steps over a rather steep portion li_ered with small stones, on which one might easily slip and be swept down, a clapier, it was an easy climb. Upon reaching the top, I found it was a tiny meadow, a few hundred square feet in area. It was entirely covered in edelweiss. This unanticipated eerie sight still resonates, decades later.

Published inPlants