Orsiera-Rocciavrè Natural Park
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The Orsiera-Rocciavrè Natural Park is a natural area that covers a vast alpine area of western Piedmont between the Cottian Alps and the Graian Alps, namely between Val Susa and Val Chisone, with its maximum height of 9.442 ft on Mount Orsiera.
The vegetation of the Park is particularly interesting both because the protected area includes a wide altitude range, and because its three have different climatic and pedological features.
Val Chisone and Valle di Susa are characterized by strong temperature and water level variations, with hot/dry summers and frigid winters. The high summer temperatures and the optimal exposure to the sun allow crops to grow higher and higher along the slopes: in Val di Susa, for instance, vineyards can reach 3.937 ft and cereals even 6.562 ft. Locally, there are xerothermic micro-environments, with sub-Mediterranean or steppe flora, in which the vegetation features frugal, heliophilous plants, resistant to the harsh temperature range and droughts – Scots pines (Pinus silvestris) for example.
Val Sangone, on the other hand, is of the pre-alpine type: it opens directly onto the plain and, right from there, the masses of humid air soar on the slopes, causing fogs and frequent rainfall. The climate is, therefore, cooler and suitable for mesophilic species such beeches (Fagus sylvatica), extremely abundant at lower altitudes, near the borders of the Park. These deciduous formations are often scattered with meadows and pastures of anthropogenic origin, many of which are still used today.
On the high-altitude siliceous substrates of Val Chisone and above all of Val Sangone, huge patches of Festuca varia are extremely widespread.
Sedges (Carex curvula) also thrive abundantly throughout the Park: a pioneer prairie, linked to the siliceous or acid substrate, which looks like a thick carpet of medum-height grass, including < em>Carex curvula. The populations are easily recognizable at the end of August, when sedge leaves bend and turn yellow, giving a uniform ocher colour to the slopes. In that prairie it is quite common to find patches of Silene acaulis , Juncus jaquinii , as welll as more common species such as Leontodon helveticu , , Gentiana kochiana, Nigritella nigra, Trifolium alpinum, and Geum montanum.
This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)
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0122 47064
parco.orsiera@ruparpiemonte.it