Edelweiss
iStock/Dominikkisskalt
The Edelweiss (Leontopodium nivale), immortalised in the musical The Sound of Music, is the most revered of Alpine flowers. It grows at altitudes of between 1700m to 3500m on rocky limestone in the Alps of central Europe¹. While not the most beautiful, its comparative rarity and the notion that it was only found in the most dangerous and difficult of places contributed to its mystique². On the latter, the author Charles Boner wrote, “Strangely enough it always grows in a spot to be reached only with utmost peril. You will see a tuft of its beautifully white flowers overhanging a precipice, or waving on a perpendicular wall of rock, to be approached but by a ledge, where perhaps a chamois could hardly stand³”. Its allure was so great, that it quickly became endangered. Alpinists often wore a sprig of Edelweiss in their hats as a “badge of honour” or sought it as “proof of their devotion” for loved ones awaiting their return in the villages far below. To preserve the Edelweiss, many alpine clubs announced the prohibition of its collection as far back as the late nineteenth century. While it is no longer endangered, this “silver star” is still rare enough to melt the hearts of those who happen upon it in the mountains.
In Slovenia, the Edelweiss is known as Planika, which translates as “mountain”⁴. It grows in the Julian Alps and the Kamnik Alps, Karawanks, Ratitovec, Snežnik, Trnov Forest, and Zarica Gorge⁵. It became protected as far back as 1896 in the Goriška region and elsewhere soon after, making it the first protected plant species in Slovenia.
The Edelweiss or Planika is one of the many flowers that are found in the sanctuary that is the Kingdom of Juliana. Readers can take delight in trying to locate this distinctive flower in each of the colour illustrations that will grace the pages of my fairy tale, Anabell.
The Edelweiss can also be found in the Carpathian and Pyrenees mountains.
Many alpinists, authors and poets are guilty of embellishing the daring feats involved in locating this flower.
Charles Boner, Chamois Hunting in the Mountains of Bavaria (London: Kessinger, 1853), 87.
It is also known as Očnica, which translates as “eye”.
It may have grown on Little Golak in the past.
Julius Kugy, Julijske Alpe V Podobi (Maribor: Obzorja, 1971), 205.
Translation is attributable to Katja Pečnikar (2022).
“Whose heart doesn’t start to beat faster when they see silver stars of edelweisses in the rocks? Young or old, it captivates everyone with its soft, timeless charm. Search wherever you can. No flower is like this one!
Spare her! Leave the mountains, if you truly love them, their noblest ornament. What will the withered bouquet on your hat do to you? It doesn’t suit you at all. Look at yourself in the mirror and observe your gloomy, urban face. Do not pose with her, when she just accuses you in front of all the mountains as a predator and a robber. Leave the flower, a symbol of the eternal purity of the mountains, in its velvety beauty on a narrow ledge in its rocky homeland.
”Planika, how beautifully you bloom for us”!”