The second nature reserve I visited just outside of Vienna was near Pfaffstätten, a dry partly wooded hill again on limestone and with an amazing diversity of plants and as many as 1,200 butterflies and moths. Among the birds, woodlark breeds here, although I didn’t see it! Thanks to Simon for finding the time to take me to this precious place which included the amazing Adriatic Lizard Orchid!
Salvia nemerosa
Sambucus ebulus, the berries of which are widely believed to be poisonous, but I remember Maria Tariyska in Bulgaria telling me they were used there…
The destination was this limestone hillock
Saponaria officinalis, soapwort
Nature reserve
Just by the path near the entrance to reserve, this incredible flower was growing, the Adriatic Lizard Orchid (Himantoglossum adriaticum)
Adriatic Lizard Orchid, Himantoglossum adriaticum
Adriatic Lizard Orchid, Himantoglossum adriaticum
Amelanchier ovalis, a European species
Berberis spp.
?
Misteltoe on pine
Sedum
Sanguisorba minor
Lamium
Sempervivum
?
Second location for Himantoglossum adriaticum, Adriatic Lizard Orchid
Simon from Arche Noah kindly took me on an early morning botanical excursion to Eichkogel on the outskirts of Vienna during my visit in June 2017. This is a 428m high hill, part of the Northern Limestone Alps…with a rich diverse flora and fauna…here’s a photo album of some of the plants we saw…no time to ID some of the plants we saw…please help if you can…
Two members of the nettle family growing together in the woods, Parietaria officinalis and Urtica dioica.
Salvia nemorosa
Salvia nemorosa
Heracleum
The first surprise…Staphylea, bladder nut!
Hops and Bryonia interweaved
Simon found a snack…
Verbascum
Simon was telling me that the art of constructing stone walls from the limestone was dying out…
The only Allium we saw….vineale?
Campanula
Campanula
Orobanche
Not far from the suburbs
…and there it was…my first wild Dictamnus albus
Dictamnus albus in fruit!
Stephen Barstow 18 hrs · Fallen misteltoe (on pine)
One of the great things of travelling and doing these talks is all the fantastic people you meet. Wolfgang Palme (and his lovely wife Angelika who also acted as my interpreter in Schiltern and Vienna) was one of these! I met them first at my talk in Schiltern and I was then very much looking forward to visiting City Farm where they run courses and have developed a diversity garden for children, including several of the perennials in my book! Wolfgang has also written a great looking book on harvesting vegetables during the winter (I include a few sample pages in the album below!)
I look forward to collaborating more in the future!!
See also http://www.cityfarm.wien/
Google Earth image of city farm with the site of the diversity garden and the Kammermeieri, a historical building where my lecture was held!
Wolfgang Palme and myself after my talk at Arche Noah in Schiltern!
Wolfgang had made a special effort of decorating the entrance, stairs and lecture theatre with perennial veggies! Here’s Hosta!
ALlium tuberosum
…and this artichoke on the stairs!
The lecture room!
Kammermeierei
The diversity garden
Wolfgang’s book on winter harvested vegetables!
…includes Silene!
…and this sowing plan for harvesting in the winter months must have been a labour of love!
The genus Hosta is just about my favourite vegetable as you can read in my book Around the World in 80 plants, productive, tasty and perfect for a forest garden as it doesn’t mind deep shade! I did a walk and talk at the Botanischer Garten der Universität Wien as part of my tour organised by Arche Noah in mid-June 2017. To my great surprise, there was a Hosta installation in the garden and a large collection of species Hosta! It turns out that the genus Hosta was named after Austrian botanist Nikolaus Host (1761-1834) and he managed a garden on the site of the botanical garden until his death!
From the garden’s web site: “On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Nikolaus Thomas Host (1761-1834). A group of students of the class for landscape design, under the supervision of the British artist and landscape designer Tony Heywood, is working on a “horticultural installation” for the Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna.”
Here’s a series of pictures from the installation “Hosta Superstar” and a long bed of species Hosta!
All Hostas are edible.
This was the highlight of my guided tour of the garden which ended at the Hosta installation.
It was unknown to the garden that Hosta are edible and the director was excited of this new dimension to the garden…perhaps there will be a Hosta tasting next spring!
The Hosta Superstar Installation
On the window of the greenhouse installation there is a list of plants credited to Host (bold), there are many others (non-bold) that turned out to be synonyms!
The Hosta species border!
Hosta nakaiana
Hosta longipes
Hosta venusta
Hosta minor
Hosta capitata
Hosta montana
Hosta ventricosa
Hosta pachyscapa
Hosta gracilima
Hosta hypoleuca
Hosta nigrescens
Hosta plantaginea
Hosta ventricosa
Hosta jonesii
Hosta kikutii
Hosta kikutii var yakusimensis
Hosta clausa
Hosta clausa var normalis
The Hosta species border!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
