These wild lupins amazed me near the Swiss-French border in the Alps

A photostory preceding a travel+hiking report with information about the region.

I thought lupins were native to more northern regions of Europe. WikiPedia tells me I was wrong, as there are species native to disparate regions:

Anyhow, I was amazed when, totally unexpectedly, in this hike near the border between the Swiss and French Alps I found such dense mini-forests of lupins.

The flowers displayed beautiful colors and even some interesting combinations with white, mostly of some pink or purple shade.

In 10 years hiking the Swiss mountains, this was the first time I saw wild lupins!

Besides the flowers themselves, targets of all my admiration and praise, the day was spectacular too.

Not very hot, but warm enough to hike with a simple T-shirt even at 2,400 m.a.s.l. Not entirely clear, but the blue areas of the sky were deep blue and the clouds tinted white. Thus, by placing the camera’s focus on the flowers I could easily get very nice shots with what I judge as very nice contrasts:

The surrounding mountains, which reach between 2,400 and 3,000 m.a.s.l. (for reference, these lupins were growing at around 1,700 m), also helped create interesting contrasts:

And you? Have you ever unexpectedly found any wildflowers that you loved? Perhaps during a hike, or in your garden, or somewhere bizarre?

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