{"id":9493,"date":"2026-08-03T17:57:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T17:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/?p=9493"},"modified":"2026-08-07T17:18:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T17:18:30","slug":"dolomites-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/03\/dolomites-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolomites 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Further to my Dolomites 2025 posting<\/a>, here are some highlights of this year’s visit, focusing on species and themes I didn’t comment on then. All the images are mine except where indicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Monkshood\"
Monkshood (aka Wolfsbane), a beautiful but deadly poisonous plant, at 2000 metres<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Since we went up to 2200 metres, we saw several species of flowers we had not come across before. (Right-click to view images in a separate tab if you want them larger.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yellow Wolfsbane<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Herb-Paris, a rare but distinctive plant of the high mountains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The colourful symmetries of Yellow Mountain Saxifrage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The scarce and definitely montane Grass-of-Parnassus, divine at least in name<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Spotted Gentian (yes! they’re not all purple!) coming into fruit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The glorious colour of the Willow Gentian, another scarce flower of the high mountains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Hoary Plantain, an elegant mountain member of a common genus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The striking wild Columbine (Aquilegia<\/em>), mountain cousin of the garden plants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The extraordinary and beautiful Goat’s Beard, Aruncus vulgaris<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Clary Sage (Salvia<\/em>), the attractive wild cousin of the garden herb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Betony-Leaved Rampion, like a space invader in the plant world<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Hairy Alpenrose, a high-altitude native member of the Rhododendron <\/em>tribe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Time for a lichen or two! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The graceful champagne flutes of the Cup Lichen, Cladonia<\/em> cf fimbriata<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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One of the most attractive of all lichens, Usnea florida<\/em>, the flowery beard lichen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And now for a few bugs!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Mediterranean
The bright warning coloration of the Mediterranean Milkweed Bug says “Don’t try eating me, I’m poisonous”.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Mazarine
Female Mazarine Blue, extinct in Britain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Purple Emperor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Purple Emperor spends most of its time high in the treetops, but in hot weather (like the current heat dome covering most of Europe including Britain) comes down to wet rocks (here, beside a delightfully cold and refreshing mountain stream, which I visited for much the same reasons as the butterfly) to drink the mineral-rich water. You can see its long proboscis extended for drinking. The wings have a purple sheen, created by microscopic structures which interfere with light, when the light is in just the right direction; they are pigmented brown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the subject of increasing heat, this photograph of a mountain forest tells a sobering story. Dead Spruce trees are dotted about the slopes. They were killed by the European Spruce Bark Beetle, Ips typographus<\/em>. As its name suggests, it mainly affects Spruce but can harm other conifers. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Ips typographus. Photo from Wikimedia Commons by Gilles San Martin. CC-by-SA 2.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The female lays her eggs under the bark of the tree. The larvae make galleries there, which can be extensive enough to girdle and kill the tree.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"\/<\/a>
Ips typographus’s galleries just under the bark of a spruce tree. Photo from Wikimedia Commons by Tonu Pani, CC-by-SA 3.0 unported.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Growth of the beetles is slowed or halted by hard winters, and they used to have just one brood per year. With global warming, Europe’s winters are becoming milder, and the beetles often survive the winter. In addition, they now have up to 3 broods per year; damage to forests has greatly increased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Green Mountain Grasshopper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The star of the show? The celebratory summer-lover, the Green Mountain Grasshopper. It was a joy when one landed on my shirt and stayed to pose for the photographers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For (much) more, see the page Wildlife of the Dolomites<\/a>. It groups the organisms by type.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Further to my Dolomites 2025 posting, here are some highlights of this year’s visit, focusing on species and themes I didn’t comment on then. All the images are mine except where indicated. Since we went up to 2200 metres, we saw several species of flowers we had not come across before. (Right-click to view images … Continue reading Dolomites 2026<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,89,239,90,6],"tags":[1888,1892,1883,1887,1250,1884,1823,1895,1894,677,1885,1891,1901,1890,1889,1628,1893,1900,1886,1898,1896,1903,1897,1902,1899],"class_list":["post-9493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservation","category-environment","category-love-of-nature","category-natural-history","category-wildlife","tag-alpine-adenostyles","tag-alpine-plants","tag-aquilegia","tag-betony-leaved-rampion","tag-cladonia","tag-clary-sage","tag-dolomites","tag-flowery-beard-lichen","tag-forestry-pests","tag-global-warming","tag-goats-beard","tag-grass-of-parnassus","tag-green-mountain-grasshopper","tag-hairy-alpenrose","tag-herb-paris","tag-hoary-plantain","tag-ips-typographus","tag-lesser-purple-emperor","tag-mediterranean-milkweed-bug","tag-monkshood","tag-spotted-gentian","tag-spruce","tag-willow-gentian","tag-yellow-mountain-saxifrage","tag-yellow-wolfsbane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9493"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9797,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9493\/revisions\/9797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obsessedbynature.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}