ROCK GARDENS OF MONT BLANC  

You don’t hear much about rock gardens, do you? They are simply patches of planted ground bordered by rocks, but their contents make them something special. They contain unique ecosystems, letting you pass quickly from the flora of the Valle d’Aosta to that of the Arctic Circle, North America, the Iberian Peninsula and other parts of the planet. Just a few meters in which you can admire small alpine species from all over the world.

Valle d’Aosta Rock Gardens

At the entrance to the Gardens you’ll find the flora of Valle d’Aosta, the region the Gardens call home and the smallest in Italy, as little children learn in school. And yet, although its surface area is only one percent of Italy’s total, it hosts forty percent of Italy’s plant species. As you learn their names and come to recognize their scents, you’ll discover that every flower has a story. The edelweiss, for example, is symbolic of these mountains but comes from very far away: the arid mountain plateaus of Central Asia. Many think that it’s the rarest of the native flowers, but that’s not the case. There are flowers here of lesser prominence, but much harder to find, like Eritrichium nanum, a tiny forget-me-not that grows on the morainic slopes, or the martagon lily, also known as the Turk’s cap lily, because of its elegantly curled petals.

There are more rare blooms here: a tour around the borders of this rock garden will reveal many plants worthy of note. Centaurea triumphetti, which resembles a large light blue mountain cornflower; Lychnis alpina, a resident of the highest alpine pastures; Lychnis flos-jovis, typically found in more arid areas at lower altitudes; Campanula thyrsoides and the extremely rare Paeonia officinalis: today, in Valle d’Aosta, this plant is found only in two inaccessible spots in the lower part of the valley.

Then there are the artemisias. One in particular, Artemisia genipi, lends its aroma to genepy, a sweet, alcohol-based digestive tonic. The yellow gentian (Gentiana lutea) also has digestive properties, but you must be very careful: it is quite similar to the white hellebore (Veratrum album), which is poisonous. The difference between them lies in their leaves, which are opposite and paired in Gentiana lutea, with five veins that diverge towards the borders, and are never furry. Instead, Veratrum album has alternating leaves at various heights along the stem, the veins are numerous and parallel and the leaves are thickly furred on the underside. When they are in bloom, it is easy to tell them apart: the hellebore’s flowers are small and greenish, arranged in a spiral, while the gentian’s are larger, yellow and arranged in concentric circles.

Western Alps Rock Gardens

In a single glance, the Western Alps Rock Gardens offers you a panorama of all the species that inhabit the westernmost mountains in Italy, from the Maritime Alps to those of Provence, passing through the Cottian and Graian Alps. This is the home of Haller’s anenome. It is in the family of the ranunculaceae, but it differs from the other ranunculi because of its unusual and funny-looking fruit: it can be seen during the summer, easily recognizable because of its long feathery filament. Its name comes from its flowers, though: in Latin, pulsare means to move with a rocking motion, exactly like these flowers when they rock back and forth in the breezes that caress the alpine pastures.

Eastern Alps Rock Gardens

The soil is largely composed of calcareous rock in the space dedicated to the flora of the Eastern Alps. Among them is a light-colored, particular rock, dolomite, whose name is borne by a mountain range as beautiful as the one you are in now: the Dolomites.

Some of the plants in this rock garden are of the same genus as those in the Valle d’Aosta or Western Alps gardens, so they look very much like our local plants. Others are instead genuine botanical rarities, like wulfenia, which has pre-glacial origins. There are only two places where you can admire it: here, and in the easternmost sector of the Eastern Alps.

Exotics (Rock Gardens of North America, the Iberian Peninsula and Eurasia)

Some of the plants in the North American Rock Gardens resemble those we are familiar with. Like the snapdragons, for example, or the Dryas drummundii, very like the white dryad native to the Alps, but with flowers of a different color. This rock garden also contains a very special kind of plant, the Penstemon, or beardtongue. In the wild it blankets the ground of the North American mountain chains: here you can see its long, leafy stems, covered with flowers of various colors.

The flora of the Iberian Peninsula is quite varied: in fact, different areas of the region have widely divergent climates, and consequently different vegetation. In some areas, lush forests are home to deciduous species like durmast, linden, chestnut, elm and maple, but in other places there are only small shrubs, heather, ferns and broom, and a handful of other plants capable of eking out a living in harsh, arid conditions. Like Eryngium bourgatii, found mostly in the Pyrenees, which you can admire in this rock garden. It is a member of the Apiaceae family, and closely resembles a plant we are familiar with, the Queen of the Alps (Eryngium alpinum). From July to October its flowers tinge the rock garden with an unusual shade of blue, circled by a crown of spiny leaves: in ancient Greek, erungion means hedgehog, and perhaps that’s where the genus got its name.

In the Eurasian Rock Gardens you’ll find edelweiss very similar to those in our Alps, but they come from the Himalayas, like another very unusual plant, Potentilla nepalensis, also a native of Nepal. It’s one of the few plants in the Gardens with red flowers.

Medicinal herbariums

Every plant has a story. And that’s not all: in their tiny leaves, seeds, roots and bark, some plants hold medicinal powers. Because that’s where the active principles lie: those natural medicinal substances that have for untold years been transformed by herbalists into unguents, oils, scents, infusions, tinctures and cosmetics, aromas and medicines. The medicinal rock gardens are home to some of these plants. Like the rhodiola: it yields active principles that moisturize and nourish the skin. You can also see valerian, a mood equilibrator, with its pale pink flowers. Next to it grows the mallow, used to make detergents and toothpaste, thanks to its emollient and anti-inflammatory properties. Yellow flowers that resemble daisies signal the presence of arnica montana. In addition to quelling inflammations, this plant also eases pain and aids the circulation.

Imperatoria vera  (Peucedanum Ostruthium), or masterwort, is a species in the Apiacee family and a medicinal herb. Its root has digestive, anti-inflammatory and expectorant properties, but must be taken in small doses internally.

Local inhabitants have a habit of sucking on a piece of this plant’s root to dull the pain of a toothache, but this practice can irritate the stomach and provoke a general sense of inebriation.

Calcicole flora

The rocks seem immobile, but it is in their depths that everything begins: each element reacts harmoniously with the others and defines the identity of an entire mountain. That of the Eastern Alps is mostly made up of calcareous rock, rich in calcium carbonate, and it is for this reason that they are inhabited principally by calcicole flora. But plants of this type are also found in the Western Alps, right here in Valle d’Aosta. Like the furry alpenrose, whose leaves are covered in hairs. It is of the same genus as the rusty-leaved alpenrose – whose leaves have rust-colored undersides and which grows in the Western Alps – and they share the common name of alpenrose, because of their bright pink blooms. The difference between them? It’s all in their preferred soil: alkaline and calcareous for the hairy alpenrose, acid for its rusty-leaved cousin. In this rock garden you will also find Aster alpinus,  Leontopodium alpinum and Saussurea alpina, other species of the Saussurea genus and plants of exceptional beauty, like Silene elisabethae and Minuartia verna, which blankets the ground with tiny white flowers.