FLORALAB: network of open air botanical laboratories

The objectives of the project are:

• To improve knowledge and innovate, with scientific research support, concerning monitoring of the rare and endangered eastern Pyrenean flora.
• To promote interprofessional and cross-border cooperation for the preservation and concerted management of this flora and its habitats.
• To Train ecology students and local actors (farmers, foresters, mountain guides, etc.) in the knowledge of the Pyrenean flora, but also in the challenges of its conservation.
• To make this topic accessible to the public.

An Open-Air Botanical Laboratory wants to be a place of reference for knowledge - conservation - management - research on heritage plants in the Pyrenees. They are in areas of important botanical interest that benefit from an action program on flora, defined and agreed on between the different stakeholders, with the aim of preserving the plants, and acquiring practical knowledge for their conservation.

Floralab is positioned far beyond a simple scientific "sentinel" device in favour of heritage flora. The project offers the public opportunities to get to know  Pyrenean flora; organizes technical conferences for local actors to make them aware of the vulnerability of species; offers ecology students participation in training sessions to become aware of the challenges and difficulties of natural heritage conservation.

In Andorra some of the outstanding actions are:

• Photo contests and traveling exhibition Flora del Pirineu.
• Cross-border festival of the Flora of the Pyrenees.
• Professional exchange day between mountain guides and botanists.
• Scientific monitoring of Salix ceretana, Maianthemum bifolium, Astragalus penduliflorus and Xatardia scabra.
• Improving the management of the population and the environment of a threatened plant in Les Pardines.
• Establishment of an Open Air Botanical Laboratory.
• Botanical villages of the Pyrenees.

Andorra Research + Innovation is the main partner of the project in Andorra, but it has the great complicity and collaboration of the Sorteny Natural Park, the Comapedrosa Natural Park, and the Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley.

This project is funded by the Interreg-POCTEFA program and by the Department of Higher Education, Research and Study Grants (https://www.ensenyamentsuperior.ad) of the Government of Andorra of the complementary call for European grants POCTEFA 2014 - 2020, reference AUEP011-AND / 2019.

[1] P. Salvadó, P. Aymerich, J. Parera, A. Vila, M. Martin, C. Quélennec, JM. Lewin, V. Delorme-Hinoux, JAM. Bertrand, "Little hope for the polyploid endemic Pyrenean Larkspur (Delphinium montanum): Evidences from population genomics
and Ecological Niche Modeling", DOI: 10.1002/ece3.8711, Ecology and Evolution 12: 3 (e8711), 2022.

[2] Varis autors, "Dossier FLORALAB. Coopération transfrontalière au service de la flore pyrénéenne", Natura-Catalana, Lettre d'information des Réserves naturel les catalanes, 44, desembre 2022.