Rhizobotrya alpina Alpine Scurvygrass Dolomite Endemic
Before departing for this trip, a botanical friend challenged me to find this plant in the Dolomites which really means he thought I would have no chance whatsoever of finding it. He had said that it was small, green with tiny white flowers growing in small cushions about the size of a fingernail but only in the Dolomitic mountain rocks. The unlikliness of my finding it was confirmed when our leader, whose experience of botanising in these parts runs to many years, had never seen it before although he had searched for it for years.
Seed had been washed down from the heights and deposited on wide white dolomitic river gravels where it flourished and made a much larger patch than a normal fingernail. It was in seed and as many texts say looked a little like a typical scurvygrass with spoon shaped leaves and round fruits. Indeed in the past it has been know as Cochlearia alpina, Kernera alpina but Rhizobotrya alpina seems to be the accepted name now. Rhizobotrya alpina grows only in the Dolomites at heights of between 6,000 and 9,000 feet - except of course when it has been washed to the lower sub alpine levels.
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| Rhizobotrya alpina Alpine Scurvygrass |
River gravels at Gares, Dolomites 1st July 2014
Added on 8th July 2014