Flora of the Massif Central

This diversity can be explained by the massif's large surface area, its position at the intersection of different climatic zones, and its geological variety.

The characteristic plants of this environment include downy oak (Quercus pubescens), Etruscan honeysuckle (Lonicera etrusca), sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia), meadow sage (Salvia pratensis), red poppy, red clover, wild pansy, common milkwort (Polygala vulgaris), yarrow, Persian speedwell and many others that are not at all specific to the flora of Auvergne.

In fact, only a few small volcanic peaks that are scattered across Limagne are of any ecological interest, especially on their southern slopes, where flora with Mediterranean affinities thrives.

[3] The flora accompanying these woody species is not particularly remarkable: the classic woodland flowers such as Lily of the Valley, Wood Anemone, common cow-wheat and Solomon's Seal can be found here.

Generally speaking, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this level was the subject of massive reforestation, as in the Limousin region (planting of conifers), but also in the south on certain steep slopes which tended to erode (a good example is provided by the black pine forests all around the causses and in particular in the upper Lot valley around Mende).

The same applies to the Puy-en-Velay basin, where it is possible to find segetal species (i.e. linked to cereal fields) of oriental origin, such as Conringia orientalis and Neslia apiculata.

In some cold, damp areas, fir is mixed in with beech and may even become dominant[4] (Monts du Cantal, Artense, northern Margeride, Forez mountains).

In the former case, we'll come across calcicole flowers such as the very precocious Snowdrop, Montane Knapweed, February daphne, Yellow thistle (rarer), Five- or Seven-leaved Cardamine or Cacaliaster Groundsel, and sometimes, paradoxically, calcifugous species (due to the relatively neutral nature of basalt, which contains little silica or calcium carbonate in a natural state, these elements being in the form of silicates).

However, the vast majority of flowers thrive in both types of soil: Sweet woodruff, Martagon lily, two-leaved cornflower, Snow-white wood-rush, Common foxglove, Herb Paris, Austrian Doronicum (Doronicum austriacum), Alpine squill, Pyrenean squill (west of the massif), whorled Solomon's seal, and Large-flowered Calament ("Aubrac tea").

In addition, as moorlands are transitional areas between pasture and forest, they are often home to native tree and shrub species as diverse as birch, wild rose, hazel, hawthorn, rowan and whitebeam.

The boundary hedges[9] (where they exist, as bocage landscapes are fairly rare in the Massif Central) also include some interesting woody species such as Common Ash (which is often severely pruned as its leaves are used to feed livestock), Norway maple, Sycamore Maple, Blackthorn, Raspberry and Black Birch, a shrub with white flowers that only grows at a certain altitude.In terms of the herbaceous layer, grasses[nb 6] make up most of the plant cover, with a large number of species represented.

For example, there are species that can grow equally well in all three areas: yellow gentian, dog's tooth (western mountains), narcissus, elder-flowered orchid, European white hellebore, and mountain arnica; others prefer mown meadows: Spiked rampion, Bistort, Poet's daffodil, and others are more often found in unmown pastures (whether granite or basalt): Petty whin, Hairy greenweed, Field gentian, Pulsatilla rubra (endemic to the Massif Central and found mainly on the eastern slopes of the various massifs), Meum athamanticum (this plant, also known as cistre, is grazed by Salers or Aubrac cows and is responsible for the flavor of Cantal cheese), Irish Euphorbia (an Atlantic plant found in the west of the massif), Pyrenean Dandilion, etc.

vulparia, Garden monkshood (altitude > 1,200 m, highly poisonous), Siberian columbine meadow-rue, Bachelor's buttons, Adenostyles alliariae (alt.

[2] In peat bogs, due to the lack of nutrients in the mats of Sphagnum moss, the plants are often smaller and sometimes carnivorous (Round-leaved sundew, Common butterwort).

Many other species inhabit the peat bogs of the Massif Central, however, which is what makes them so ecologically valuable: In waterlogged depressions, for example, we will find Purple marshlocks (Comarum palustre) or water clover (Menyanthes trifoliata), and higher up, on mounds of Sphagnum moss, Cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos and Vaccinium microcarpum), sheath-leaved cotton-grass (Eriophorum vaginatum), Bog-rosemary, Marsh clubmoss, etc.

There are also a number of stations of the very rare epiphytic orchid Hammarbya paludosa (the Swamp Malaxis) in certain peat bogs in the Lozère (Aubrac, Margeride) and Limousin regions.

asphodeloides) and, more generally, dry grassland and/or limestone rockland plants such as the Field eryngo (Eryngium campestre), the "Thistle-barometer" (Carlina acanthifolia), the Flax campanula (Linum campanulatum), the Chalk milkwort (Polygala calcarea), etc.

Plants strictly endemic to the Causses and Cévennes include Germandrée de Rouy (Teucrium rouyanum), Pulsatilla vulgaris var.

The Causses also boast a number of stations of the famous Lady's-slipper orchid (Cypripedium calceolus) and the only French locations of the Spring pheasant's eye (Adonis vernalis).

The plants most frequently found in heaths or sub-alpine grasslands, particularly those in the Cantal and Monts Dore, are a certain type of grass[2] (Nardus stricta, Festuca rubra, Poa alpina, Phleum alpinum, Helictotrichon versicolor, etc.)

There are areas that stand out in particular, such as Puy Mary and its surroundings, which contain a number of alpine species that are not found elsewhere in the Massif Central, such as Tozzia alpina, Saxifrage oppositifolia, Saxifraga androsacea and Pedicularis verticillata.

[15] This relative impoverishment is essentially linked to the destruction of certain environments with a high heritage value, particularly wetlands (drainage of peaty meadows, recalibration of watercourses, etc.

), the intensification of agriculture (disappearance or rarefaction of certain segetal species that were once common due to the use of herbicides) and the ever-increasing presence of urbanized areas (although this progression is not as rapid in the Massif Central as in other French regions).

The Natura 2000 network also covers vast areas, particularly in the center of the massif (Couzes country, Allier valley, St Flour planèze).