TravelMarx: Val Grosina and Alpe Dosdè Hike Plant Notes

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Val Grosina and Alpe Dosdè Hike Plant Notes

On our Val Grosina and Alpe Dosdè Two-Day Hike, we spotted a number of the usual flower suspects, as noted below. But what caught our attention were the impressive informational signs about the plants and environments in the valley, especially on Hike 1 and in Val Verva. They talk about meadow ecosystems that, on first glance, seemed unassuming and insignificant but after reading these signs, they give you a sense of their importance. Well done who ever created these signs!

Val Verva Informational Signs

Boscaglia ad Ontano verde

Boscaglia ad Ontano verde means “Green alder shrubland”. This sign is where Alpe Verva meets Val Viola.
Alder (Alnus viridis) is in the birch family (Betulaceae)
“Megaforbie,” i.e., tall, dense, herbaceous plants that love rich, damp ground.
The flexible branches of alder resist damage from moving snow in avalanche or heavy-snow zones.
Plants you will find with alder:

Senecio fuchsii — Fuchs’s Ragwort, a yellow-flowered perennial.
Petasites albus — White Butterbur, a plant with big, broad leaves.
Adenostyles alliariae — Alpine Adenostyles, a perennial with tall with pink blooms.
Aconitum napellus — Monkshood has striking purple flowers that are highly toxic.

Pascolo Pingue

Pascolo pingue means “rich pasture”, highly productive, rich-forage species.
Balanced grazing pressure to keep the plant mix diverse and nutritious.
Key forage grasses pictured in the sign are:

Poa alpina — a hardy alpine bluegrass, nutritious and resilient.
Phleum alpinum — an alpine timothy grass, good for hay and grazing.
Festuca rubra — a red fescue, adaptable and palatable.

Pascolo umido

Pascolo umido means “wet pasture”, which is a mix of meadows and grazing areas where the soil stays moist for much of the year.
Typical wet pasture plants include:

Cirsium palustre — marsh thistle, tall with spiny leaves and purple blooms.
Eupatorium cannabinum — hemp agrimony, pink‑flowered and loved by pollinators.
Filipendula ulmaria — meadowsweet, fragrant white blossoms, often near streams.
Caltha palustris — marsh marigold, bright yellow flowers in spring.

This sign is a reminder that these soggy meadows aren’t “waste land” — they’re living reservoirs of water and wildlife, worth protecting for both nature and people.

Praterie a Carice ricurva

Praterie a Carice ricurva means “Grasslands/meadows of curved sedge”
Carex curvula — curved sedge is a hardy grass‑like plant in the Cyperaceae family. Its ochre, curled leaf tips are caused by a specific fungus (Clathrospora elynae), a natural part of this ecosystem.
Found high in the alpine zone, above the tree line, where the climate is too harsh for woody plants.
Other plants found with curved sedge:

Senecio doronicum — bright yellow composite, often on granite soils.
Phyteuma hemisphaericum — “raponzolo alpino,” with striking spherical violet flower heads.
Senecio incanus — pale yellow‑white blooms, adapted to wind and cold.
Leucanthemopsis alpina — the alpine daisy, a cheerful white flower of rocky meadows.

Praterie palustri

Praterie palustri means “Marshy meadows”
Plant communities in flooded or waterlogged zones — often called crelofore (cotton‑grass stands) and cariceti (sedge stands). Not especially valuable for grazing, but ecologically important.
Main plant groups shown present in these meadows:

Eriofori (Eriophorum spp.) — cotton‑grasses with fluffy white seed heads, in the wettest spots.
Carici (Carex spp.) — sedges that thrive in saturated soils.
Trifolori (Trifolium spp.) — clovers adapted to damp meadows.
Giunchi (Juncus spp.) — rushes, often in slightly less flooded patches.

Over time, plants deposit peat that gradually raises the ground level. As the soil rises and dries, the area loses its marsh characteristics and shifts toward other meadow types.

Rododendreto

Rododendreto means “Rhondodenron stand/scrub/thicket”
In Italian, rododentreto is a technical habitat name built from rododendro (rhododendron) + the suffix ‑eto, which denotes a plant community dominated by that species — much like querceto for oak woodland or castagneto for chestnut grove. In English habitat descriptions, the equivalent construction is usually “X stand” or “X thicket” — for example, “oak stand” or “juniper stand.”
Key species appearing with rhododendron:

Mirtillino delle Alpi (Vaccinium myrtillus) — bilberry, with edible dark berries.
Ginepro della zona (Juniperus sibirica) — a low, creeping juniper adapted to cold.
Carice vaginata (Carex vaginata) — a sedge that thrives in alpine soils.

This is the climax vegetation here — meaning the most stable, complex, and biomass‑rich plant community that naturally develops in this zone. Found above the larch and stone pine forests, where trees can’t survive due to harsher climate.

Rododendreto in fase evolutiva

Rododendreto in fase evolutiva means “rhododendron shrubland transitioning to forest”
This is unstable vegetation — it developed after pastures were abandoned or disturbed. Without grazing or other management, shrubs like Rhododendron ferrugineum (red rhododendron, or “rose of the Alps”) spread quickly.
Breaking down the name Vaccinio-Rhododendretum ferrugineum

Vaccinium is the botanical genus that includes bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus), bog bilberries (V. uliginosum), cranberries, and related ericaceous shrubs.
The ‑o ending is just the Latin linking vowel used in phytosociological names.
Rhododentretum ferrugineum = a plant association (‑etum) dominated by Rhododendron ferrugineum (alpenrose).
Putting it together means: “The plant association dominated by Rhododendron ferrugineum with a significant presence of Vaccinium species.”
In phytosociology, the formal name of an association often lists two (or more) diagnostic or dominant species. In this case, this tells ecologists that the shrubland isn’t pure rhododendron — it’s a mixed ericaceous community typical of acidic, subalpine slopes.