Carlina aucalis - chardon d'argent - silver thistle

This photo was also taken this week before it snowed.

Locally we also call this the barometer. When it is sunny and dry out the petals are open, and when it is wet and humid out the petals close around it! 

It is a funny flower stuck to the ground as it has virtually no stem, and it is surrounded by prickly needles on its leaves. It is impossible to pick with nare hands, but it makes an excellent subject for photos.

Interestingly enough, when it has gone to seed like here the center is sooo soft, it is worth taking off your gloves to touch it!

Tussilago farfara - Tussilage - Coltsfoot

I took this photo yesterday, 20th of Feb, in Verbier snowshoeing along around the Marlénaz and Bisse du Levron area.

So this happy yellow head sticks out right after the snow has melted away, a month or 2 before its leaves will start to grow! The leaves are what gives the flower its name in English: Coltsfoot, because they look like the imprint of a colt's foot. The leaves are white and soft on their underside and actually quite robust, they are excellent to use if you have forgotten toilet paper! ;)

You can pick a few flower heads and boil them in water with honey & lemon to make a syrup that is soooo yummy! But it is also good for your throat, which is what most people need at this time of year!

The syrup will keep, but I find it so delicious that it usually disappears the same day I make it!

Astrantia major - Grande astrance - Big Masterwort

This flower has such a weird, and somewhat ghoulish name that makes me think it comes out of  a Tolken book like The Hobbit : Master Wort!!

Regardless of its name, it is absolutely stunning. I have seen quite often, at least every summer. 

Here is a close up of the flower heads. I love how it is green, white, pink all at the same time.

Dryas octopetala - Dryade à 8 pétales / Chênette - Mountain Avens

A flower with 8 white petals

This is a cute white flower with a bright happy yellow center! It is an alpine flower and its leaves remain green all year around. They say here in Switzerland that they were used during World War I & II to make tea. I think the Swiss military that were at altitude to protect the borders were melting snow every day and that eventually they would get to the bottom of the snowpack and find these green leaves, having nothing much to eat why not add them to the meltwater for taste? I have tried it in my hot water thermos and personally I did not think much of it as a tea, but then again I was not up in the Alps in the middle of winter freezing my hands & feet waiting for some military invasion, so I can imagine that to them it was a different thing altogether. 

This is what it looks like when it has gone to seed. A bunch of hair sticking straight up, waiting for the wind to take away the seeds and spread them further along the crest of the Alps to bloom elsewhere in the summertime. As you can see the leaves have not changed color as the flower has bloomed and gone to seed.