Flora and Fauna
Other than the forests of spruce, larch and stone pine, and the dwarf shrub heath and alpine grassland with their characteristic flora and fauna, the treeless summits are also typical of the Nockbergs.Their central location places the Nockbergs in a climatically Continental region. The Lower Tauern begins to the north, the Hohe Tauern to the west and the Julian Alps and the Karawanken to the south hold back the rain fronts. The relatively slight precipitation mostly falls as thunderstorm rain, and the slight snowfall is often greatly transported by a hurricane-like wind, whereby an icy cold prevails above all in deep winter.
Forest of larch and stone pine
The subalpine spruce forest is perfectly adapted to this rough, cold climate at altitudes between 1,400 and 1,900m. The forests of larch and stone pine join the spruce forests at about 1,700m. Together with an occasional spruce, an extensive stand of stone pine has been maintained in the Nockbergs. The larch and stone pine forests often reach altitudes of 2,200m - the orographic climatic forest line!In the undergrowth one finds numerous dwarf shrubs, such as the alpenrose, blueberry, cranberry, and the crowberry, as well as the rarer blue honeysuckle or the rock redcurrent. The alpine grasslands accommodate such species as the Celtic spikenard (Valeriana celtica) - a valerian type with a strong aroma. In earlier times its roots were gathered and the farmhouses were smoked out to ward off evil spirits; they were later exported to the Orient as incense and for the manufacture of spikenard soap and further processed to make other toiletries.
Ciliate rock jasmine and Eurasian dotterel
On the peaks and open fields of schist one finds the ciliate rock jasmine (which is only to be found in the Nockbergs), or the dwarf birch as a relict of the Ice Age on the few high moors. Multifaceted limestone flora has formed on the limestone peaks. Plants of southern origin also thrive here, such as the cinquefoil and rock jasmine. The tall perennial herb meadow offers another botanical rarity, which is the wild angelica from distant Eurasia.Together with the widely distributed alpine fauna, also seen are such true rarities as the Eurasian dotterel, the snow grouse and the alpine hare, which survives here as an Ice Age relict in the sparse tundra of the mountain tops in the minor mountain range of the Nockbergs, which has hardly been disturbed by people. In particularly protected places, several species of insects survived an Ice Age lasting a million years on the areas that remained free of glaciation. For this reason one finds astonishingly many endemic species - meaning those represented in only a few areas - such as the white speck ringlet (Erebia claudina) or the green mountain grasshopper variety (Miranella alpina carinthiaca).
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