Flora
In his famous book « La grande flore illustrée des Pyrénées », Marcel Saule references more than 4,500 species of which 160 are endemic. Most are flowers, but there are also rare trees such as the famous “Pin à crochets”. Since the XVIth century, the best botanists, from Pierre Richer de Belleval to Augustin Pyramus de Candolle or Picot de Lapeyrouse, have studied Pyrenean flora.
When springtime comes, the Pyrenees are transformed into an explosion of colourss.
Blue for Aquilegia, Echium, Iris or blue Pyrenean Thistle, both endemics; yellow for Lesser celandine, Broom, Ranunculus Acris; red for Rhododendron, Colchicum, Lilium martagon or Sempervivum mountanum; purple for Pyrenean Ramonda myconi, which is dedicated to Ramond de Carbonnières.
Eighty-two species of orchids (out of 150 counted in France) can be found in the mountains, up to 2000 meters high, of which the famous Cypripedium calceolus which only blossoms for a couple of weeks.
Set at the “Bains du Salut” in Bagnères-de-Bigorre since 2001, the National Botanic Conservatory of the Pyrenees and Midi-Pyrénées compiles a permanent inventory of uncommon and threatened plants as well as setting intervention priorities for preservation matters.
Following an innovative ethnobotany approach, the Conservatory works on popular and scientific knowledge related to plants, such as “messicoles” plants, in a bid to protect biodiversity.