Plants of Northern Italy

This year marks the 25th Winter Olympics, with competitions held at venues across north-central and northeastern Italy. As the world watches top athletes try for gold, we’re highlighting a few plants native to Northern Italy. These plants deserve their own recognition for their beauty, rarity, and horticultural importance.

Characterized by Alpine lakes and meadows, vast forests, and the towering peaks of the Dolomites, Northern Italy is home to breathtaking landscapes and beautiful flora.

Snow Drop (Galanthus nivalis)

Close-up of a snowdrop flower with white petals and green markings, against a blurred background. — *Snowdrops, native to mainland Europe bloom at Henry Shaw’s Mausoleum Garden in St. Louis. Photo by Nathan Kwarta.*

Living up to their name, snowdrops bloom in late winter or early spring, sometimes emerging and blooming through snowfall.

Snowdrops are bulbs native to most of mainland Europe, where they grow in deciduous woodlands, meadows, pastures, and rocky slopes. They have escaped gardens and naturalized in parts of eastern North America and the St. Louis area, where you can spot the blooms poking through snow cover in February and March.

Multiple snowdrop flowers with drooping white petals and thin green stems. — *Snowdrops bloom in the Boxwood Garden in early March. Photo by Erik S. Anderson.*

Spring ephemerals such as snowdrops give valuable insight to scientists studying climate change and its impact on phenology, or the timing of various parts of an organism’s life cycle.

yellow lady’s slipper orchid (Cypripedium calceolus)

Yellow lady's slipper orchid, native to Northern Italy, features a deep purple petals and a bright yellow "slipper" — *Yellow lady’s slipper orchid photographed during a Garden field expedition to collect plant data in the Ural Mountains of Eurasia. Photo by David Gunn.*

Native to much of Europe and east through Siberia to China, this beautiful orchid grows in mixed woodlands and forest openings.

In the spring, stems reaching up to two feet tall emerge from underground rhizomes bearing three to four leaves and one to two flowers that bloom from late spring into early summer.

A scientist dress in blue plaid and wearing braids, holds a large iPad to photograph Cypripedium calceolus. She is surrounded by green woodlands. — Pauline Drobney, Prairie Zone Biologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, photographs Cypripedium calceolus in bloom during a data collecting trip through the Urals in June of 2014 as part of the U.S. – Russia Botanical Exchange Program. Photo by Kate Moore-Freeman.

Like many orchids, yellow lady’s slipper seeds are minuscule and require very specific conditions to germinate, making it difficult to propagate from seed. This orchid is considered rare and vulnerable to extinction across most of its range, with populations in decline due to poaching, climate change, and habitat loss.

dittany, gas plant, or burning bush (Dictamnus albus)

Close-up of Dictamnus albus flowers with pink striped petals and prominent stamens. — *Dictamnus albus, a native plant of Italy, produces a showy display of pink and white blooms. Photo by Daria McKelvey.*

This herbaceous perennial grows in open woodlands, forest margins, and on rocky slopes in southern Europe and the Caucasus region. It produces a showy display of pink and white blooms on upright, loose spikes from spring into summer.

A field of flowers in Hungary includes yellow and pink blooms. — *Dictamnus albus blooming in Mátrai Landscape Protection Area, northeast of Budapest. Photo by Zoltán Stekkelpak on iNaturalist.*

In addition to the flowers and leaves, Dictamnus albus has another peculiar trait that really shines, especially on warm, summer nights. The flower spikes produce volatile oils and other organic compounds that will rapidly ignite in hot weather, producing a quick-burning pyrotechnic display that does not harm the plant. This is how the plant came to be known as the gas plant or the burning bush.

Close-up of green leaves with prominent veins — *Dittany leaves have a lemony scent, but can cause a rash for some gardeners. Photo by Daria McKelvey.*

Keep in mind that this plant contains oil that, though pleasant-smelling, can cause Phytophotodermatitis (a mild-to-severe skin rash) for some individuals, especially when handled on a sunny day. Wearing long gloves and pants to protect skin against oil is recommended.

dark columbine (Aquilegia atrata)

Close-up of Aquilegia atrata flowers with a mountainous backdrop. — *Aquilegia atrata blooms in the Swiss Alps. Photo by Finn Klessmann* *on iNaturalist.*

This columbine gets its common name from its dark, reddish-purple flowers, which bloom in summer.

a striking, hardy perennial known for its nodding, 1–2 inch, bell-shaped flowers that range from deep maroon-purple to nearly black — *Dark columbine blooms with deep reddish-purple flowers. Photo by Margherita Ferraiuolo oniNaturalist.*

Dark columbine is native throughout Europe, but is also one of the more common columbine species spotted blooming in the Alpine forests and meadows of northern Italy.

Columbines first evolved in Asia before rapidly expanding and diversifying across North America and Europe over the span of a few million years. Today, we recognize around 70 species and countless hybrids and cultivars commonly found in gardens around the world.

fire lily (Lilium bulbiferum)

A vibrantly orange and yellow lily in a field overlooks a mountain range, — *Lilium bulbiferum blooms in the Swiss Alps between Italy and Switzerland. Photo by Felix Puff on iNaturalist.*

Native to moist meadows, grassy slopes, and open woodlands of central and southern Europe, the fire lily lives up to its name with its showy display of fiery orange blooms.

The 1-to-3-foot-tall, upright stems emerge from underground bulbs and bear one to five flowers in summer.

Bright orange firelily with bulbils on the stem. — *A flowering firelily bears bulbs that propagate clones of the parent plant. Photo by Nicolas Weghaupt on Wikicommons.*

Its specific epithet bulbiferum means “bearing bulbs” and refers to the small, aboveground bulbs called bulbils that may form at the leaf axils along the stem. These bulbils can be removed from the stem and used to propagate a clone of the parent plant. Other lily species also exhibit this trait, such as Lilium lancifolium (tiger lily).

Alpine aster (Aster alpinus)

Small, circular flowers with light purple petals and a bright yellow center bloom in a cluster against a pebbly soil. — *Alpine asters bloom in the Bavarian Garden, which displays the Missouri Botanical Garden’s alpine plants. Photo by Tom Incrocci.*

Like its specific epithet and common name suggest, this small aster calls high altitude mountain slopes home.

Flowering stalks emerge from low-growing clumps of basal foliage, topped with a solitary flower head made up of narrow, violet-blue ray florets surrounding a central cluster of bright yellow disk florets. Mature plants in bloom will typically reach less than 12 inches tall.