5. Isar - plants and pioneers

We saw that the area of the so called „Gries“ is very uneven.

Let's walk across the floodplain one more time and experience the terrain and the changes in elevation!

Pioneer plants, such as purple willow and butterbur, can establish themselves on the crown of the “island.”

But don`t think you can find them always there. Big floods clean this sections and a lot of the plants aren`t there after it. Also the river's course has been redesigned. Where the Isar can`t do this on it`s own sometimes construction machines are used.

The red branches give the willow species its name: purple willow.

She can handl bad conditions very well: dry gravel, nearly no nutrients and sunshine with extreme heat. At the other side there are conditions like floods and the plant is covered with gravel and has exposed roots. The purple willow is a master of survival as long as she gets light and has groundwater connection.

We will see willows all along the path.

An other common willow ist he butterbur

Feel the underside of the leaf.

She`s growing everywhere, where fresh gravel lays for a while for example here at the „Gries“ or along freshly replenished roadsides.