Page 12 - 2022 AMA Summer

GUESTWRITER
Alpine Snowbell
Mountain Houseleek
Beaked Lousewort
JIM LANGLEY
Jim Langley is an Inter- national Mountain Leader (IML) and co-author of The Alps - a natural companion. He runs CPD workshops for outdoor leaders and instructors in the UK but also in the Alps. To find a workshop or to learn more about his educational business, Nature’s Work, check out his website www. natureswork.co.uk
Jim Langley
Snowdon Lily
caused the squeezing and compression of the original rock turning them into crystalline ‘metamorphic’ rock. The granite gneiss rock forming the Joderhorn is part of the Monte Rosa nappe – a geological fold formed during the high pressure metamorphosis around 40 million years ago.
Due to the nature of the geology of this region, alpine flowers preferring a silica- rich, calcium-poor soil are favoured. I know enough now about the impact geology has on soils and the various species which favour certain nutrients and minerals and so I am aware of what little gems could be encountered. With its high altitude position the valley leading up to the Montemoro pass has a rich supply of spring water and snowmelt creating a range of luxuriant habitats and providing the life enabling moisture which plants require.
We were all so stoked about the superb climbing we’d just experienced and after a quick summit snack began our descent to our bikes. I got my camera out ready, started looking out for flowers and shared some sightings with the group. You get a feel for their interest which was varied but they found it amazing that there were so many different plants around that
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they’d not noticed. Descending past the waterfall I knew there would be a beauty somewhere close with the wet, flushed soils. Immediately my gaze was drawn down to the nodding, purple-tinged white flowers of a plant I have the fortune to see back home in the mountains of Snowdonia. It’s here I first glimpsed the Snowdon lily with all the mystique and allure of alpine plants so far from their preferred habitat and where this delicate alpine plant stubbornly holds on, refusing to lose its hold in its last known sites in the British Isles.