European larch
Photos: Bob (CC BY 4.0) · Justin Schoon (CC BY 4.0) · Public domain (iNaturalist) (CC0) on iNaturalist.
Alpine biogeographical region · Zones 4–7
Alps, Pyrenees & Carpathians
Europe's high country: snowy winters, steep green summers, and the climate changing with every hundred metres you climb.
Larch, spruce and stone pine forest, high meadows and pastures, glaciers, cold lakes and fast rivers falling out of the mountains.
Get your local guide
Places in this region
Gardening
Altitude is everything: valley gardens grow apples, beans and tomatoes; above 1,000 m it is potatoes, cabbages, herbs and berries in a short season.
About gardening guides →Fishing
Brown trout and grayling in rivers, Arctic char and lake trout (in lakes such as Geneva and Constance), pike and perch in the valley lakes.
About fishing guides →Foraging
Bilberries, wild raspberries, ceps, chanterelles and larch boletes, wild thyme, juniper, elderflower and gentian country — where picking alpine plants is often protected.
About foraging guides →In season now · October
What you can pick right now
25 wild edibles typically ready in October in the Alps, Pyrenees & Carpathians. Seasons shift a week or two with the weather — check each one before you go.
FruitSeptember – OctoberHawthorn berries
Crataegus spp.
Thorny small tree with lobed leaves and clusters of small red haws, each holding one to five hard stones. Cut one open to see the stones.
How to know it & its look-alikes →
NutOctober – NovemberSweet chestnut
Castanea sativa
A big tree with long, glossy leaves edged with sharp, regular teeth, and bark that twists in spiralling ridges on old trunks. The nuts come in twos and threes inside a husk covered in dense, needle-sharp spines; each is glossy brown, flat on one side, with a pointed tuft at the tip.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: John Powers · CC BY 4.0
Has a dangerous look-alikeTreeSeptember – NovemberJuniper berries
Juniperus communis
Low spiky evergreen with needles in whorls of three, each with a white stripe on top; the 'berries' are fleshy blue cones that take two, sometimes three, years to ripen — so green and blue ones hang together.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: David Anderson · CC BY 4.0
BerrySeptember – NovemberLingonberry (partridgeberry)
Vaccinium vitis-idaea
A creeping evergreen 5–20 cm (2–8 in) tall with small, thick, glossy oval leaves whose edges roll under; turn a leaf over and look for scattered dark bristly dots on the pale underside. Firm red berries hang in small clusters at the branch tips, and the tiny bell flowers that preceded them had four fused petals.
How to know it & its look-alikes →
FruitSeptember – NovemberRose hips
Rosa spp.
The red-orange fruit left after a wild rose blooms, topped with a dried five-pointed crown of sepals.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Tom Norton · CC BY 4.0
BerryAugust – OctoberRowan berries
Sorbus aucuparia
A slim tree with smooth silvery-grey bark and feathery leaves of many toothed leaflets in pairs; big flat clusters of scarlet-orange berries, each about 1 cm (⅜ in) across with a tiny black five-pointed star at the tip.
How to know it & its look-alikes →Photo: Therese Phillips · CC BY 4.0
19 more in season here — see the full foraging calendar →
Photographs are research-grade observations from iNaturalist, each credited to its photographer. They show a typical specimen, not every variation — never identify from a photo alone. Confirm with a regional field guide or an experienced forager before you eat anything wild.
In the water now · October
What's biting
The sport fish active in the Alps, Pyrenees & Carpathians in October — where they hold, how to know one on the line, and the tactic that usually works. Check your licence and the current limits before you go.
FishJun–MarEuropean perch
Perca fluviatilis
Five to eight dark bars on a greenish flank, bright red-orange lower fins, and a spiny first dorsal fin with a black blotch at the back.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Дауд Арсанукаев · CC BY 4.0
FishJun–MarZander
Sander lucioperca
Slim and glassy-eyed, with grey-brown saddles, rows of black spots on the spiny dorsal fin, and long fang-like canine teeth.
Where and how to catch it →Photo: Tomas Broucek · CC BY 4.0
FishApr–OctCommon carp
Cyprinus carpio
Big bronze scales (or the scattered big scales of a mirror carp), a long dorsal fin, and two pairs of barbels at a rubbery, tube-like mouth.
Where and how to catch it →
Photographs are research-grade observations from iNaturalist, each credited to its photographer. Ranges and timing are typical, not guaranteed — 87 species are covered across North America, Europe and Africa.
In the garden now · October
Who else is working the garden
The insects and soil life out in the Alps, Pyrenees & Carpathians in October. Most of them are on your side — learn the few that aren't before you reach for anything.
PollinatorMar–OctHoney bee
Apis mellifera
Golden-brown, banded, furry thorax, and pollen packed onto the hind legs in visible baskets.
What it does in the garden →
BeneficialApr–OctLady beetle
Coccinellidae
The adult everyone knows; the larva is the useful one — a spiky, alligator-shaped grey-and-orange creature that looks like a pest.
What it does in the garden →
BeneficialApr–OctGround beetle
Carabidae
Shiny black or bronze, fast-running, with grooved wing covers and long legs.
What it does in the garden →Photo: Gavin Slater · CC BY 4.0
Photographs are research-grade observations from iNaturalist, each credited to its photographer. Ranges and timing are typical, not guaranteed — 87 species are covered across North America, Europe and Africa.
The weekly note for the Alps, Pyrenees & Carpathians
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Why Alps, Pyrenees & Carpathians looks the way it does
Warmth and rain decide what can live in a place. The dial starts on the kind of land closest to this region — turn it warmer, colder, wetter or drier and see what would grow instead.
Boreal forest
Like northern Ontario
Cool and a bit rainy: long snowy winters and pointy spruce trees that keep their needles — moose and lynx live here.
Warmth and rain decide what can live in a place. They decide which plants can grow, and the plants decide which animals can live there.
Say it like this
- Age 2“Brrr, cold! Now make it hot. Now make it rain!”
- Age 4“Cold and dry makes tundra. Can you make a desert? Who lives there?”
- Age 6“Why can't a cactus grow in the rainforest, or a moose live in the desert? Warmth and rain decide what can live in a place.”
Go outside: Put a cup outside to catch the rain this week, and look at the thermometer each morning. Is your place warm or cool, wet or dry?
For Kids · The land and the sky