Blooming Altai

• Blooming Altai

Spring - the best time of the year when nature comes alive, everything started up in growth. Stunning aromas fill the air, on the horizon rokochut storm clouds, the wind carries petals ... Spring - a time of new achievements, ideas and adventures. And besides - the opening of the tourist season! I opened it in the Altai in good company and in a good location.

Blooming maralnik became a symbol of the arrival of the heat in the mountains. In the Altai region he devoted an entire festival of the same name - "Flowering maralnik". We are a bit pobyli at this event - I would say that it is celebrated on a grand scale and pomp)

For the first time in my life I saw just an incredible sight - when the mountains are covered with a purple carpet. From afar it seems that the clones just someone spilled paint bright tank. Besides maralnik blooms at a time when there is still no bright green or other colors that makes it stand out even more on the mountain slopes.

The scientific name maralnik - Ledebour Rhododendron (Rhododendron ledebourii). Maralnik belongs to the family of heather. Distributed in the Altai, Sayan Mountains, in the North-East Mongolia, it grows in the undergrowth of coniferous forests, subalpine mountain belts. This semi-evergreen shrub decorative reaches a height of 1 to 5 m and a crown diameter of 1 to 3 m.

maralnik (Rhododendron Ledebour) does not like the excess moisture, drought-resistant plant it. Leaves on maralnik held two years and fall, alternating from year to year.

The people of bagulgnikom often referred to, but it's absolutely the wrong name. Rosemary - a bog shrub with white flowers. In the west, it belongs to the rhododendrons, but here such a point of view does not hold.

We are in the mountains in the peak flowering maralnik. Almost across our way to the mountains to Aktas slopes were covered in purple. It was difficult to choose the most beautiful place and had full strain of looking out for the most photogenic thickets)

In the backdrop of rugged mountains flowers looked particularly bright.

On the way back maralnik blossomed brighter. Purple spots just burned eyes) Look at the bright spot almost on steep slopes!

But as always - all the most beautiful was almost at the beginning of our journey. We quickly ran past a small village, and drove on. but on the way back we stopped at the edge of the village, near the rocky slopes.