The gentian blooms blue: joy at the splendour of flowers on the Isar and Loisach rivers

The gentian was often sung about and photographed even more often - just picking it is absolutely taboo. This year it is thriving particularly splendidly in the district.

Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen – Its deep blue flowers attract attention and fascinate many people – also because the gentian is no longer so common and you need a little luck to discover this flower. However, if you are out and about in nature with your eyes open, you now have the chance to discover the beautiful gentian blossoms in spring. Apparently it is even a particularly good gentian year. Because the Kurier editorial team is currently receiving numerous reader photos of magnificent blossoms.

Gentian flower: "The abundant rain is beneficial for some species"

However, there is no statistical survey as to whether the gentian is actually blooming more in the district this year. Sabine Tappertzhofen, who holds a doctorate in biology and is head of the district office of the State Association for the Protection of Birds (LBV), says in general terms when asked by our newspaper: "The heavy rain is beneficial for some species." How many gentian plants there are in the district is not recorded – "fortunately", as Tappertzhofen says. This is because recounting is only done for species of which there are only "very few" specimens left. The fact is, however, that gentian is "no longer common in contrast to the past". That's why it's forbidden to pick it.

Johannes Königsberger discovered the first gentian blossoms in the Loisach-Kochelsee moor and photographed them against the backdrop of the still snow-covered Benediktenwand.

© Johannes Königsberger

In order to protect the remaining plants, Kurier readers usually do not provide exact information about where they photographed the flowers. "Of course, for understandable reasons, I can't reveal where the flower grows," writes Gerhard Frech. Sometimes, however, the photographers' letters contain rough hints. They have discovered the wonderful flowers in the Loisach-Kochelsee-Moor, in the Kirchsee- and Ellbachmoor or on the Isar and Loisach. "When we talk about 'gentian' in the Oberland in spring, we usually mean either the small, slender spring gentian or the somewhat stronger stemless limestone gentian," explains Sabine Tappertzhofen. The latter in particular stands out: "because of its large, deep blue flowers". In total, the botanical genus of the gentian family occurs in Central Europe with around 35 species. "Most of them bloom blue, but there are also purple and even yellow and red species," explains the biologist.

Stemless limestone gentian blooms in some parts of the Isar floodplains

The stemless limestone gentian needs lean, not too densely overgrown calcareous soils. "If the vegetation becomes too dense, especially with grasses, it no longer has any space with its leaf rosette," says Tappertzhofen. It is therefore not found on areas regularly fertilized with liquid manure. In the region, the stemless gentian is now found on the calcareous grasslands, which have become rare. These have been preserved on steep and dry slopes and in some places of the Isar floodplains and occur in the fens.

"Where a gentian blooms, there is a magical place," writes reader Georg Rest about this photo, which he took in the Kirchsee area.

© Georg Rest

According to the LBV expert, these litter meadows have different lime content depending on the location. "If they are too acidic, the gentian disappears," explains the biologist. Acidification occurs, for example, when an area that has always had contact with calcareous groundwater is drained. "The water drains faster through the ditches, the lime cannot settle, the areas acidify, and the gentians disappear."

Gentian liquor is not made from the blue gentian

For all those who appreciate the gentian above all in liquid, high-proof form, Tappertzhofen has another piece of information ready: "By the way, the gentian schnapps is not made from the blue gentian," she clarifies, "but from the rhizomes (shoot axes, editor's note) of the yellow gentian."

You can find even more up-to-date news from the region at Merkur.de/Bad Tölz.