Wildflowers in the Montagne Noir - Part 2

After lunch we headed a bit west and higher up to a place Gill calls the Magic Meadow. On the way we passed areas covered in the Papillon or Butterfly Lavender (a good indicator of acid soil). Rocky verges gave way to grassy ones full of Cowslips, then swathes of Early Purple Orchids (Orchis mascula) appeared, like these below.

The last time we were here we walked several kms uphill, but this time, thankfully we drove that bit after carpooling at Pech Mégé, altitude 637m. Then it was a shortish walk to where we disappeared into some trees and emerged on the side of a limestone ridge.

This area is amazing for having a mix of Mediterranean and mountain species, at an altitude of about 700m, which is not particularly high for mountain plants. 

This photo, taken by Keith, is an indicator of what it's like on a wildflower trip. Bums in air! All the photos K took of me by the way, I had my back to the camera and my hood up (that's me on the right). It was FREEZING up there and when the sun went in it was even worse. There were times when I was nearly blown off my feet.

Here we are looking in the direction of the plain , on the other side of which are the Pyrenees.

And this is the other side of the ridge that we were on.

There were occasional lovely little sheltered spots like here, just covered in Early Purples and Rush-leaved Narcissi, the same little Narcissus that we saw in the morning. In a place like this, it’s hard to not tread on a flower, so we did our best to avoid the orchids, knowing that the thyme and other low ground cover plants could mostly take our footsteps.

In a sheltered spot we found the only two Fly Orchids (Ophrys insectifera) of the day. The two flowers that were out show just how varied Ophrys species can be in terms of colour and markings.

This is a cute little mountain species, Creeping Globularia (Globularia repens).

My favourite plant of the day is this lovely little alpine, Hairy Rock Jasmine (Androsace villosa). Several websites I read said that this species is found from an altitude of 1,200m, showing how interesting it is in the Magic Meadow, as we were about 500m lower down than that.

In the top right of the picture is Mountain Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis montana) with pinky red flowers.

And in this picture is Common Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria), although both species can be found at altitude.

There were other wildflowers worthy of photos but by this time my knees had just about given up! I saved my last bit of strength for anything amazing, like this Sword or Narrow-leaved Helleborine (Cephalanthera longifolia) which we saw in a shady spot on our way back.

On the way back to the cars it started snowing!!! Unbelievable! It was only light fine snow, but even so. We called it a day earlier than we normally would have because everyone was cold and fed up of the wind by now. I sat in the car and enjoyed a nice warming cup of tea from our flask.

Just after we left K decided to take his jacket off, so we pulled in and I saw these Aphyllanthes monspeliensis - they are a common plant on the garrigues in spring and on grassy hillsides around where we live. I didn't see any during the day however.

Other orchids seen during the day, and the reasons for not taking pics, were:

Early Spider Orchid (in my lawn!)
Yellow Bee Orchid (in my lawn!)
Man Orchid (in my lawn!)
Tongue Orchid (already have many photos and knees were giving way)
Dense Flowered Orchid (I have photos from the last time we were there, plus knees)
Woodcock Orchid (I missed that one)
Violet Limodore in bud (I missed that too sadly, but it was growing along the verge a bit lower down from where we parked. Not one I have seen before). 

I went back through my 2021 photos, as I never posted about that trip on my blog. Here's a photo giving you an idea of what the Magic Meadow looked like a month later, in mid May. Not really a lot different, apart from a sea of yellow everywhere from a yellow Rock-rose.

This is the plant in question: a Rock-rose that I can't ID (Helianthemum sp.). PlantNet isn't much help as there are three that look similar but not quite right!

It was a very successful day in terms of wildflowers but somewhat challenging with the weather! Having seen these two spots in both April and May, I would like to come back in June to see what else might be in flower - but I would choose a nice day and hope to see lots of butterflies!

Wildflowers in the Montagne Noir - Part 1

This was a wildflower outing organised by Birding Languedoc last week, one that we had done before in May 2021. We started the day above the village of Siran in the Minervois. Due to firebreaks keeping the vegetation down it has allowed the wildflowers room to flourish without competition from the nearby trees and shrubs. This is garrigue habitat, where most plants grow low to the ground in rocky free draining soil, where they cope with hot dry summers due to small tough leaves, and/or summer hibernation.

There were only seven of us on the trip: Philippa who leads the BL trips and Gill who was our plant expert for the day. Also present were a couple of guys I know who are pretty knowledgeable about plants/birds/insects, so it made for an easier day with most plants fairly readily identified.

Whilst we had some great views over the plain to the Corbieres and distant Pyrenees, it was a very windy day so we were blasted by the cold wind until we could get to some more sheltered spots!

Being here a month earlier than the last time allowed us some fabulous displays of Asphodels (I don't know species name, possibly Asphodelus cerasiferus?. Edit: Though I see from my photos that some of them are Branched Asphodels (A. ramosus)).

My favourite garrigue plant is Cistus, particularly this Grey-leaved Cistus (Cistus albidus) with its lovely crinkly pink flowers. Also in this image is Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) which was everywhere, and Curry Plant. I hadn't realised that Curry Plant can be either Helichrysum italicum or H. stoechas. I thought they were one and the same plant! I can't tell which exact species were the ones we saw, that's impossible!

One of the stars of the day were these Pyrenean Fritillaries (Fritillaria pyrenaica).

Clockwise from top left: Rush-leaved Narcissus (Narcissus assoanus), Common Storksbill (Erodium ciconium), Perennial Lettuce (Latuca perennis) and White Rock-rose (Helianthemum apenninum).

A giant Puffball fungus well past its best.

Young shoots and flower buds of Kermes Oak (Quercus coccifera), the low growing oak found on garrigue habitat.

Thyme

We saw quite a lot of these Green-winged Orchids (Anacamptis morio) which were growing out in the open (photo on left), but only very few Provencal Orchids (Orchis provincialis) in more sheltered spots.

More Asphodels and Grey-leaved Cistus.

Our hardy wildflower loving group. 😀

We had our picnic in a sheltered spot nearby which was the only place where I saw butterflies, although one of our group spotted a few brave flutters hugging the ground during the day.

The afternoon's finds will be in part 2.

Exploring the Montagne Noire part 2

This post is a continuation of my previous post here.

We came down the mountain a little to an altitude of 770m to the lake of Laprade-Basse, where I had read that there was a boardwalk and a peat bog, but I had no idea whereabouts on the 6km around the lake walk it was. We pulled up beside a parking area where I could see an info board, and as luck would have it - we were there - at the right place! This boardwalk and bog are actually beside/around the very small lake at the northern end of a much larger lake, only formed in the 1980s as a reservoir for drinking water, agricultural use and for producing electricity via the barrage. The road forms the barrier between the two lakes.

This was a lovely walk, nearly all flat, a perfect temperature and no more than about 1km!

There were plenty of boards giving info about various flora and fauna seen in this area and explaining all about peat bogs. This is an area classed as an "Espace Naturel Sensible" - the equivalent of a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the UK. Full information about the bog can be found here, a really good 11 page pdf. 

At the end of the pdf I discovered info I didn't know - that our department, Aude, is the richest in France for nesting birds, and amongst the three top departments for flora! It shouldn't surprise me really, given that we are one of the rare departments that has mountainous areas in the Pyrenees and then the mini mountains of the Montagne Noire and the Corbieres, the sea, both chalk and acid soil, and flora reflecting both Mediterranean and Atlantic climatic influences, so a huge range of habitats for fauna and flora. 

We saw a number of these dragonflies which we found out were Keeled Skimmers (Orthetrum coerulescens), another tick off the dragonfly list!

Lysimachia of some sort. It's beautiful.

Looking towards the divide between the two lakes and where the parking area was.

There were plenty of carp:

This area was very interesting and the board explained it all.

In short, it explained that peat bogs need management otherwise they get taken over by forest which dries them out and they disappear. What happens to start with is that certain grasses such as the one shown on the info board (Molinia caerulea) and willow start to appear; these start to dry out the bog which allows for other plants and trees to start to encroach the then less wet areas.

What is shown here in the fenced off area in the middle is a patch of bog that has been cleared (with the help of students) of the grass and willow. I could see water in that patch, but not where the Molinia is growing.

I was too close to get it all in one photo - this picture shows a willow growing in amongst the Molinia grasses. 

The lovely fluffy plant on the right is Meadowsweet, although it was labelled as Spirea ulmaria, not Filipendula ulmaria which seems to be the most common Latin name for it. I guess like so many plants it must have changed its name!

On the walk back along the road towards the parking area there were lots of butterflies around the grass verges so I took my time taking photos, of course!

Male Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni)

Left: a Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus), top right: a Swallowtail (Papilio machaon) and bottom right: a Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas).

After that, we came down the mountain some more in the direction of home, to the village of Brousses at an altitude of about 400m. It couldn't have been more different from the lake! Now we were back in the now familiar garrigue; it was much hotter and very much drier as well. However this was an acid garrigue, as shown by the amount of flowering heathers. Also seen, but past their flowering, was the Sage-leaved Rock Rose, (Cistus salviifolius) and the Butterfly/Papillon Lavender (Lavandula stoechas), both indicators of acid soil.

This was a thankfully short walk too, about 1.5km. The name of the walk was 'Le Sentier du Granite', as the ground was very rocky with big lumps of granite all over the place. Juniper and the low growning Kermes Oak are familiar plants on the garrigue as seen in the following image.

On the path K spotted these two beetles digging in some holes. We spent some time watching and trying to figure out what they were doing (not having any idea what they were). A bit of research lead me to blister beetles, possibly Mylabris variabilis. The life cycles of blister beetles is very interesting as some lay their eggs in the nests of solitary bees so their beetle larvae would eat the food that the bee has left for its own larvae (and maybe the beetle larva would eat the bee larva as well). Some larvae crawl out of their underground chambers and up onto a flower, where they will climb onto a feeding bee and hitch a ride back to the hive, where they will live off bee eggs and pollen! Mylabris lay their eggs in the nest (ootheca) of grasshoppers, and the beetle larvae eat the eggs (and maybe larvae) of the grasshopper. All thoroughly interesting. In the second photo, at the bottom, you can see the beetle coming back out of the hole covered in soil and dust.

Finally, a picture of an old granite quarry. X marks the spot! Actually that is a footpath sign saying don't go this way. 😀

The end of the day was a little disappointing as we intended to visit Montolieu, a little town famous for its 15 book stores. But could we park? You gotta be joking. We tried the two well out of town car parks as well as all through the town, which is quite spread out up a hill. Not a chance - of course it was late July and full on tourist season which we had forgotten about! It looks amazing, a little like Minerve, perched up high with a gorge along one side and a bridge which crossed over the gorge. So we will come back in the autumn when hopefully most of the tourists have gone home! 😀

I'm looking forward to exploring more of the Montagne Noire now - it's not that far from home and as shown in these two blog posts, has a huge wealth of habitats and scenery. We both really enjoyed this day out! 😀

Exploring the Montagne Noire Part 1

We have been meaning to get up into the mountains for ages, and now that holiday season is upon us, it's better to avoid the coast and keep away from the crowds.

As we have only explored a tiny part of the Montagne Noir, yet we look out at it every day from our house, that was the destination we chose. After some research on places to visit, we headed for the highest point to start with - again we can see that from the house. Sensibly we left Mary Moho at home and set off in the car - a good thing after having navigated some of the smaller roads, especially through little villages!

On the way, we stopped beside a pretty mountain stream to have a look - you just never know when it's a Dipper type river what you might see - but no, no Dippers in sight, however... lots of lovely butterflies enjoying the wild buddleia bushes.

Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius):

Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia):

Once at the top of the Pic de Nore (altitude 1,211m) we had an amble around. The building here is a transmission tower and is visible from a long way away. Wildflowers were everywhere! It must be very windy up here as many of the plants I know to be normally much taller such as Knapweed were very short, like most mountain flowers. Certainly the temperature reduced by about 5C from lower down. Later on in the afternoon it was so hot I think we should have done our itinerary the other way round!

Knapweed (Centaurea, pink flower, don't know which species), Yarrow (Achillea millefolium, white flower) and Jasione Montagne, blue flower, which has many common names, one of which is Sheep's Bit Scabious, although it is not related to Scabious. I used to see this plant around the coast in Brittany.

Red and white markers beside the road for when it is covered in snow, and blue Campanula of some sort.

A shame that it was so hazy, that we could not make out the Pyrenees at all! I think here we are looking towards the Haut Languedoc range to the south.

Parasol mushrooms:

The paler pink flower is Scabious, which is flowering everywhere at the moment. Around home it has lasted a long time as we are getting a decent amount of rain this summer, so the countryside inland is still quite green.

Female Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) and a bee on Wild Thyme (Thymus serpyllum). This is a different variety of thyme from that which we see growing on the garrigue (Thymus vulgaris, or Common Thyme) - serpyllum is the one I have in my garden which I grew from seed for the Thyme bank in my Breton garden, and have brought here with me via some self-seeding in pots of other things!

After that we started to head down towards a lake but on the way stopped in a picnic area for lunch. I walked back a little to a wildflower meadow full of Scabious that we had just passed, which you would think would be teeming with butterflies, but really there were very few. I did walk past the first Comma that I think I have seen since I moved here though! There were quite a few Silver-washed Fritillaries in this meadow and some Gatekeepers.

This Silver-washed Fritillary posed for me on the gravel of the parking area near where we had our picnic:

The rest of the day out will be posted in Part 2 another day.