Swiss Flora

Swiss flora comprises around 3,000 different vascular plants. Strictly speaking, the country’s flora also includes some 1,300 different species of moss. Worldwide, approximately 300,000 flowering plants (excluding mosses) are currently known. Although Switzerland accounts for just 0.03 per cent of the world’s land area, one per cent of known species can be found here. The local flora is therefore very diverse. It owes this diversity to the varied landscape with its different climate zones. These range from the continental climate of the Lower Valais or the Lower Engadine, through the Insubric climate of Ticino, to the cold climate of the Alps. However, Switzerland’s flora is also shaped by its climatic history. For instance, tree species such as Douglas firs (Pseudotsuga), magnolias (Magnolia) or giant sequoias (Metasequoia) were also native to our region before the ice ages.

Across the entire Alpinum area, there are around 350 different native plant species. Many of these grow along the stream, the paths or are found in other parts of the garden. They are left in place provided they do not displace the target species of the individual garden areas. Here in the Swiss Flora section, we showcase particularly attractive species such as the monkshood (Aconitum napellus), lady’s mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris aggr) or alpine sea holly (Eryngium alpinum). Incidentally, the alpine sea holly is considered endangered, as are a further 360 or so plant species in Switzerland.

Davos country doctor and botanist Wilhelm Schibler (1861–1932)

Wilhelm Schibler was a ‘country doctor’, that is to say a general practitioner in Davos. He was an outstanding botanist, an expert on local butterflies and a passionate mountaineer. In his spare time, and also on his way to and from his patients, he explored the flora of Davos with great enthusiasm, compiled a comprehensive herbarium and authored numerous writings. He documented the flora of the mountain peaks with particular precision. To this end, in 1893 he climbed some 25 peaks and mountain passes on his own and recorded all the species he found above 2,600 metres above sea level. Among the mountains he surveyed are peaks that are difficult to climb, such as the Gletscher-Ducan, Hoch-Ducan and Plattenhorn. Unfortunately, his diaries have been lost, but fortunately his herbarium, comprising 1,700 sheets, has been preserved and is kept at the University of Zurich. It remains the basis for scientific research into the flora of Graubünden and its changes to this day.