Beech-fir forests

Heavy rainfall and humidity are favourable conditions for forests. The beech-fir combination is the most common one at the montane level. Beech and fir appreciate damp conditions and do not tolerate the colder conditions of higher levels. These two trees contribute to the formation of a humus-rich soil.

Lady's Slipper is the most spectacular of wild French orchids. Due to over-picking it disappeared from several regions in France and in 1982 it was declared a nationally protected species. In the Vanoise it is still present in the beech-fir forests and also in pine forest such as that in the Maurienne; it prefers a limestone soil.

 
Lady's Slipper
Cypripedium calceolus
© PNV / Jacques Perrier