The environment: man and nature
Flora
Luxuriant hardwood forests grow on the lower slopes and conifers abound higher up, their growth encouraged by northern exposure and abundant rainfall.
The spruce fir is the commonest tree in the park, but it is replaced by the silver fir and the beech in the western part and by the larch and the Swiss stone pine in the highest reaches.
Rhododendrons, alders and junipers mark the passage from forest to Alpine meadow - a meadow which is a blaze of colour in summer with its many flowers.
The rocky environments where there are extreme conditions are characterised by plants with survival strategies like the Alpine buttercup (Ranunculus glacialis), the Corydalis lutea and other saxifrages.
Two plants that are endemic species in the Orobie mountains, real “pearls” in the botanical field, are the Sanguisorba dodecandra which grows alongside streams in the eastern part, and the Viola comollia, a rare plant found on high, stony ground.
