on april 10th i got a chance to meet romed unterasinger, who is running what could be called the “pasqueflower protection project”.
as i’ve written here before, innsbruck’s pasqueflower (pulsatilla oenipontana; innsbrucker küchenschelle) is a critically endangered species. nowadays it only occurs on three sites around innsbruck.
romed is regularly monitoring the existing populations, as well as collecting seeds and raising plants which he beds out when they’re big enough.
he showed me the few spots were pasqueflowers are still growing and gave me a lot of information on the background and current progress of the project. out of the ones that he planted himself in recent years, several plants were flowering this year.
the common kestrel (falco tinnunculus) is also in this gallery, because it was hovering above the ground near to us, at one of the sites. apparently, kestrels can see ultraviolet light and use this to find the urine-tracks of rodents.
in the 1600s (when the term wasn’t considered vulgar yet), they were called windfuckers. :shock:
[view photos: innsbruck’s pasqueflower]
related post: looking for innsbruck’s pasqueflower