Picos Wild Flowers (Part 2)

More flower photos from our holiday in the Picos de Europa, Northern Spain.
30th June- 6th July 2-18

From previous blogs you might tell my two main interests are violets and yellow 'dandelions' so when I came across a slightly odd violet on the track from Puerto de San Gloria, see image below, I took a few photos. The attempted ID based, on the Alpine Flowers field guide suggested it could be Pyrenean Violet ( Viola pyrenaica ) . How wrong I was.

Track near Collado de la Guarde  

Like a Common Dog Violet with pointed sepals and a white spur, this violet lacked the slightly darker band at the limit of the white throat and overall petal colour was quite pale.

The veins are very clear and thin with some forking and extend just over half way suggesting V. canina ( Heath Dog Violet) however the leaves were rounded and definitely not V. canina.  The sepal appendages were massive and this and the lack of the darker throat band suggested this was not a Common Dog Violet ( V. riviniana).  The Alpine Flowers of Britain and Europe was consulted  and Pyrenean Violet ( V. pyrenaica ) appeared to fit. The key feature to separate it from all the other violet species seems to be the heart shaped shiny-green leaves.

The leaves on this plant certainly had large, flat heart-shaped shiny green leaves.  The leaves also seemed not to have any hairs or at least only a few short ones.

Bracteole high up on flowering stem and massive sepal appendages.

One feature that does not quite fit, is the spur colour which was white maybe with slight yellow/green tinge. The Flora Europaea suggests this species should have a pale violet spur. The description in the Flora Europaea had a more serious problem in that the sepal is blunt in V. pyrenaica which puts this species into the Sweet/Hairy group rather than the Dog Violet group.  The illustration in the Alpine Flowers book is misleading as it shows pointed sepals. More investigation using the internet shows the Flora Europaea to be correct. This plant is therefore not a V. pyrenaica. It does highlight the problem of using a single field guide to make an identification in difficult groups like violets. Also identification has to be based on the full range of features.

Dog Violet Sepal structure with backward appendage and pointed end.
In our plant the sepal appendage was larger than normally found in Common Dog Violet.

So where does this leave us.  The backward pointing sepal appendages are too large for most Dog Violets.   The leaves are unusual being as wide as they are long.

With a bit of help,  another candidate was suggested, one I had not heard of before. Viola mirabilis.
Key features are:-
 Leaves as long as wide, heart shaped, YES, margin crenate.
 Spring leaves in basal rosette, in photos all stems seem to come from the base, so YES
Stems with a line of hairs, not observed or apparent on the photos taken.  ?
Stipules. Photos not taken so don't know if conform. ?
Petals, pale violet, YES
Sepals acute and with conspicuous appendages, YES
Spur 6-8mm white.  YES


This all looks good however , habitat is mainly in woodland, on base rich soils and they are not recorded in the Picos. nearest place recorded is Eastern Pyrenees.  Looking at some of the better images of V. mirabilis  on the internet, shows details like side petals having hairs in the throat very like the example and similar vein pattern , thin with limited splitting.  One concern is that all the photos on the internet show the leaves having a pointed apex whereas the above photo shows a very blunted ended leaf shape. The other concern is that although the flower stems are not expected to have hairs, the leaves are often shown as having quite hairy stems and none of my photos show this.


Identification  will have to remain uncertain but suggestions are welcome. This is a real puzzle as nothing quite fits.

Time to look at less difficult plants ?

Further down the track and off to the right  near an outcrop of a pebble- based conglomerate rock I found a patch of a St. John's Wort. There are many species of St John's Wort.

The Petals.

The black streaks on the yellow petals exclude many of the species of St John's Wort and two possible candidates are Imperforate St. John's Wort ( Hypericum maculatum ) and Alpine St. John's Wort ( Hypericum richeri) .
The Sepals.
The sepals of the plant I found were marked with black streaks/dots all over -see photo above.   The sepals of Imperforate St. John's Wort do not have black dots/streaks just occasional black glands. The plant I found had very pointed sepals and this is a feature of Alpine SJW.

Close up of leaf base also shows the stem is round. Imperforate SJW would have a square stem. Alpine has round stem so still looking good for Alpine. The base of the leaf also clasps the stem without any sign of a stalk and this is a good feature of the H. richeri subspecies. burseri  which occurs in the Pyrenees and Picos.

Final close up shot of a unopened flower which shows the sepals with 'acute' pointed tips and cilate - ( regular arranged  hairs projecting from the margin), hairs with black tipped glands. This fits the description of  H. richeri subspecies. burseri  in Flora Europaea.  ID confirmed as Alpine St John's Wort subspecies burseri   .


One Violet lost but one St John's Wort added to the species list.


Peter Leonard    31st August 2018

Picos Wild Flowers

Picos Wild Flowers.

The Picos de Europa , in Northern Spain  was visited from 30th June to 6th July 2018.  The main attractions are a wide range of Alpine plants and the spectacular scenery.

View north from Puerto De San Glorio

This was my first visit and under researched.  Despite this a lot of interesting flowers were seen and photographed. We stayed in Potes which was ideal being lively and well placed to visit the  main attraction of the Fuente De cable car which takes you up 800m directly to the alpine plant zone. Also visited were the Garganta del Cares ( Cares Gorge) which can be walked from Puente Poncebos to the tiny and remote village of Cain and finally the Puerto De San Glorio, a high pass south west of Potes. Ten photos follow as examples of what was seen in Cares Gorge and in the Alpine Zone at the top of the cable car.

 Day 1    Garganta del Cares.   

Little Robin ( Geranium purpureum ) which is quite a rare plant in the UK and has smaller flowers than the common Herb Robert ( Geranium robertianum).  Rather nice to see plants that occur rarely at home.

Pink Petals and yellow anthers

Shiny and no hairs

Herb Robert, Purple or orange anthers,
 petals with three pale lines.

Herb Robert, Similar shape but hairy giving it a duller look.

2) Pyrenean Germander  ( Teucrium pyrenaicum). Mint family.

Quite common from alpine zone to lower levels.

3) Alpine Toadflax ( Linaria alpina ssp. filicaulis )  A sub species found in the Picos mountains.

Bright pink toadflax growing beside the main track with grey-green leaves.

3a) Chaenorhinum Chaenorhionum origanifolium  ( Linaria origanifolia )

Another small pink Toadflax but the spur is very short and has green oval leaves.

4) Common Columbine ( Aquilgia vulgaris )?

 ID of this one is not so certain as there are several Columbine which occur in the Picos. The Common Columbine  usually has hairy stems  whereas the Pyrenean Columbine (Aquilegia pyrenaia) is more or less hairless.  A third possibility A. argonensis has densely hairy stems and flowers with short spurs. (Ref Alpine Flowers of Britain and Europe by C. Grey-Wilson.)
A closer look at the stems show these plants to be densely hairy but the spurs do not look short hence the probability that this plant is Common Columbine.

Day Two ,  Fuente De  to the Refugo de Aliva ( Alpine Zone)

5 Rock Jasmine (Androsace villosa)

The strange feature of this plant is that the centre of the flower starts yellow and turns pink then red as it matures.

6) Thyme-leaved Globe-daisy also called Creeping Globularia  ( Globularia repens)

7) Pyrenean Trumpet Gentian ( Gentiana occidentalis)

My first 'Trumpet Gentian', not the most subtle plant but distinguished from the similar Trumpet Gentian ( G. acaulis)  by the very pointed petals however there are several similar species of Trumpet Gentian and they do not look easy to tell apart. G. occidentalis  would   appear from botanical trip reports to be the only one present in the Picos mountains.

8) Fairy Foxglove ( Erinus alpinus )

This plant gave me considerable problems in my attempts to work out what is was. The upper petal is split whereas the side and lower petals are notched and this is a very odd feature. What I had not appreciated is that the split upper petal is considered to be two petals and this is a five petal flower.
When you limit your search to exclude five petal flowers and concentrate on four petal flowers you do not get very far.  Fortunately Jenny Field came to the rescue and suggested Fairy Foxglove, an alpine plant from the mountains of Spain and south and central Europe and also found as an escape in the UK. No sub-species are recognised.

9) Spring Gentian ( Gentiana verna )

This plant that I had seen before, on a trip to the Burren, Ireland in late May. Unlike the Burren where Spring Gentian is the only Gentian, and probably its most famous plant, mainland Europe has quite a few Blue Gentians and a bit more care was  required to ID the plants in the Picos. The Calyx was narrowly winged and G. verna seemed the best fit.      

10) Pygmy Hawksbeard ( Crepis pygmaea )

Final plant of the Alpine Zone was a yellow composite growing in the rocks beside the main track.
Grey hairy leaves and red tipped petals made this a very distinctive plant.

The Alpine Flowers of Britain and Europe by Christopher Grey-Wilson and Marjorie Blamey proved very useful in identification of these plants.

Peter Leonard   25th Aug 2018