國花系列:EDELWEISS(奧地利)

“Small and white, clean and bright,” edelweiss is the emblem of Austrian nationalism and Nazi resistance in “The Sound of Music.” The von Trapp family is singing about their beloved flower before the lights go out in the theatre and, next we know, they’re escaping through the sunny Alps.

We’ve never seen edelweiss except in pictures. It seems to be starry shaped, with rubbery looking petals, slightly resembling a sea urchin. It grows best at “altitudes from 1700 meters to 2700 meters. Edelweiss prefers calcareous light soils with excellent drainage and southern exposure, where it likes to form herbal mats.”

“Love struck young men would try to endear themselves by collecting Edelweiss from those hard to access crags and ledges in the high alpine of Europe. During these quests many died from falls, or succumbed to exposure, insufficiently prepared for sudden weather changes.”
During the Second World War, German soldiers occassionally pinned Edelweiss flowers to their uniforms. The flower was supposed to be the sign of a "true soldier" in the Wehrmacht as it grows only in rugged terrain, generally above the tree line.




Edelweiss
Edelweiss (Leontopodium alpinum) is one of the best known European mountain flowers.
The name comes from German edel (meaning noble) and wei (meaning white). The scientific name, Leontopodium means "lion paw", being derived from Greek words leon and podion.
Description
*The flowers can grow to a size of 3 - 20 cm.
*The leaves appear woolly because of the covering of white hairs.
*The flowers are felted and woolly with white hairs, with characteristic bloom consisting of five to six small yellow flower heads (0.5 cm) surrounded by leaflets in star form.
*The flowers are in bloom between July and September.
*Edelweiss can be found on rocky lawns, limestone rocks, and meadows (more rarely). It is unequally distributed and prefers rocky limestone places at 2000 - 2900 m altitude.
*Originating in Asia, Edelweiss can be found on high mountains in Europe, Asia, and South America, in the Pyrenees, Alps and Carpathian Mountains.
*It is not toxic.

Edelweiss is a protected plant in many countries, including Switzerland, Slovenia (since 1898) and Romania (since 1933).
It usually grows in inaccessible places, which is why it is associated in Slovenia with mountaineering. Its white colour is considered in Switzerland a symbol of purity and due to its beauty, it got its Romanian name, floarea reginei (Queen's flower).



中國人對雪絨花的瞭解大都來自影片《音樂之聲》，片中插曲《雪絨花》已在全世界流行，並被稱爲奧地利的非正式國歌。
　　在影片《音樂之聲》中，《雪絨花》的旋律多次響起。當拒絕爲納粹服務的上校，準備冒險帶全家離去時，他爲家鄉的父老鄉親獻上的，還是那首他最喜愛的雪絨花。但一曲未了，歌喉已哽咽。愛妻瑪麗亞默契地接唱下去，並帶動全場觀衆加入大合唱，把全片推向最令人心潮澎湃的感人高潮。
　　雪絨花名叫勇敢者
　　雪絨花約有４０個種類，分佈在亞洲和歐洲的阿爾卑斯山脈一帶。這種花在阿爾卑斯山脈中通常生長在海拔１７００米以上的地方，由於它只生長在非常少有的岩石地表上，因而極爲稀少。
　　在奧地利，雪絨花象徵着勇敢，因爲野生的雪絨花生長在條件艱苦的山上，常人難以得見其美麗容顏，所以見過雪絨花的人都是英雄。
　　從前，奧地利許多年輕人冒着生命危險，攀上陡峭的山崖，只爲摘下一朵雪絨花獻給自己的心上人，只有雪絨花才能代表爲愛犧牲一切的決心。
　　關於雪絨花，奧地利有許多傳說。人們相信雪絨花王可以指引那些採摘者們找到他們尋覓已久的花，但如果誰將花兒連根拔去，這個人將會墜入萬丈深淵。