The blooming valley de La Crotte: Les Munes

4 points of interest

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  Fauna

  A skilful pest: the bark beetle

  Bark beetles are a large family of insects known as Coleoptera, which can grow to between 4 and 6 mm in length. Naturally present throughout Europe, they are one of the most important pests of softwood forests, and more specifically of the spruce forest. Bark beetles are specific to a particular wood type. The spruce type is known as the typographer and the chalcographer, and the Scots pine as the stenographer. The bark beetle burrows under the bark, blocking the flow of sap and causing the softwood to dry out. In the Grand Est and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté regions, around 10 million m3 of wood were infected between September 2018 and the end of 2020, according to the ONF (National Forest Office). Climate change and periods of drought are weakening trees' defences and encouraging the pests to spread.

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  Fauna

  The mouflon, spiral-hoofed sheep

  The ancestor of the domestic sheep, the mouflon is a wild sheep with a stocky body and thick feet, found in a large number of European countries. The mouflon has a coarse skin, reddish-brown in summer and blackish-brown in winter. The male has two thick horns that spiral backwards (up to 85 cm long). In females, they are short (15 cm) and curved backwards or absent altogether. The Mediterranean mouflon was introduced to our region as part of a wider policy to save the Corsican mouflon and replenish the native big game species, which had all but disappeared by the 1950s.

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  Flora

  The golden ball: Globeflower

  The globeflower is a mountain species, found at altitudes of between 500 and 2,500 metres. It thrives in damp meadows. A familiar sight in the Northern Alps, it is often called buttercup and it blossoms from May to August. The flowers are often single and have between 6 and 15 bright yellow petal-like sepals, which together form a ball measuring 3 to 5 cm in diameter. These flowers never fully open and they retain their simple, round shape. These enclosed flowers are pollinated by a small fly which lays eggs on the ovaries and whose larvae feed on some of the seeds. So, are you ready to impress your friends and family with your knowledge on this beautiful flower?

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  Flora

  Orchids gone wild!

  The mention of the word "orchids" often sparks a great deal of curiosity, as our French imagination conjures up images of cultivated tropical flowers. However, orchids are found almost everywhere in the world, and constitute the largest family in the plant kingdom, with over 30,000 species. There are 160 species of wild orchid in France. Orchids have adapted to all kinds of environments: Scrubland and maquis: orphys, serapias. Dry grasslands: orphys, orchis. Flood-meadows and marshes: Anacamptis palustris. Forests: helleborine, cephalanthera. Alpine pastures: gymnadenia, globe orchid, pseudorchis albida.