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Primulaceae
Alpine Snowbell
Soldanella alpina
Tenderness, alpine spring, fragile courage.
- Family
- Primulaceae
- Genus
- Soldanella
- Native to
- European Alps
- Bloom season
- Spring
- Type
- Alpine perennial
- Height
- 5–15 cm (2–6 in)
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Soil
- Gritty, moist, well-drained
- Water
- Moderate
- Hardiness
- 5–7
- Lifespan
- Long-lived perennial
Did you know
- Alpine snowbells push their flower buds up through the last melting patches of mountain snow—the plants generate a tiny amount of metabolic heat, melting their own way through the snow crust.
- Each fringed lavender bell has frilled edges so delicate they look like tiny tutus or paper lanterns hand-cut by elves—a tiny sculpted miracle dangling from a wire-thin stem.
- Alpine snowbells grow only in cool, damp turf above 1,500 meters in the European Alps and Apennines—they refuse to be transplanted to warmer climates and are notoriously difficult to grow.
- The German name is 'Alpenglöckchen' (alpine bell), and the flowers ring out across high meadows in May and June, signaling that the brief alpine summer has begun.
- The fringed petals are an adaptation against snow—the slits prevent the petals from collapsing under the weight of late-spring flurries, an evolutionary umbrella design.
Color meanings
0
tenderness
1
alpine spring
2
fragile courage