Great Yellow Gentian (Gentiana lutea), June-Aug, 50-140cm high

I can’t believe I’ve not posted a photo of the great yellow Gentian before, it’s so common that I must have just assumed I’d done it already. This plant is just above the Arnesee between Les Diablerets and Gstaad in Switzerland but it’s common in mountain areas on alkaline soils like the pre-alpes and the Jura.

The name is very old and comes from Greek antiquity, it’s named for King Gentius who’s credited with discovering the healing properties of the Gentian. Its bitter agents are used in medicines to stimulate secretion of digestive fluids. It’s used in bitter tonics to treat loss of appetite and to help with bloating and nausea.

In fact, you can make a tea from the root. Basically you chop the root and soak in boiling water for about 15 minutes, it’s then left to cool until lukewarm before drinking. It’s a very bitter taste so honey is often added to sweeten it.

There’s also a couple of alcoholic drinks made from the root. One is “Suze” from France, now part of the Pernod group of companies. This has been produced commercially since the late 1800′s from a recipe that was originally Swiss. It’s an iconic French drink and Pablo Picasso included a bottle of Suze in his painting “Verre et bouteille de Suze”.  It’s one of the first brands to have been nationally advertised in France and, at one time, there were signs advertising Suze in most French villages, they’re minor collector items now.

There’s also an eau-de-vie of gentian, it’s distilled from gentian roots and rhizomes of fermented yellow gentian. You need around 15kg of roots to 1 litre of alcohol. First you ferment the cut roots for about 6 weeks, then a first distillation of the mash is made followed by another distillation. This makes a liquid about 60% proof and water is added to give the 40-50% finished product. This is made in a lot of places, I think there’s a Bavarian version of it, but it’s quite common in the Jura region. We’ve a bottle here and I introduce guests to it sometimes, it’s a love or hate taste though! I can say it tastes pretty good from a hip flask on a dark, cold nights in alpine huts.

Just down the road in Lausanne there’s the European Gentian Association  Cercle Européen d’Etude des Gentianacées which develops the knowledge and the uses of the yellow gentian and other species of Gentianaceae.

Tags: Gentiana lutea | Great Yellow Gentian

Yellow Mountain Saxifrage, Saxifraga aizoides, June-Oct, 5-20cm high

The first thing to say about Yellow Mountain Saxifrage is not always yellow, it’s relatively rare but you’ll also find dark red or orange plants like this one at Isenau above Les Diablerets. It’s a magnet for insects and will attract wasps, bees and beetles and so on. It favours cliffs with trickling water and damp slopes so this is a typical location.

Yellow Mountain Saxifrage (Saxifraga aizoides)

Tags: Saxifraga aizoides | Yellow Mountain Saxifrage

These flowers have developed to attract moths and butterflies who can reach inside the flower with their proboscis. Early evening these flowers produce their most intense fragrance. This is just above Leysin on some calcareous soil at around 2200m which is a typical environment for the fragrant orchid.