Zinc violet

If you encounter a zinc violet, you can be almost certain that there is zinc in the soil. Like here in this region around Kelmis. The zinc violet or Viola lutea subsp. calaminaria (Viola calaminaria) grows in sunny, open places on moist, moderately nutrient-rich, zinc-containing soil. You can find them here in the zinc meadows along the Geul and calcareous grassland, but also at former dumps of mining waste and slag from the zinc ore mines and above not yet exploited ore veins. On the old mining site between Plombières (Blieberg) and Moresnet, zinc-containing slag is still present. The zinc is partly transported as blowing dust, making the environment ripe for zinc-tolerant and zinc-loving species, partly by the stream the Hohn, which has also cut through zinc-bearing layers during its course, and which flows into the Geul. The old mining site south of Plombières is now a nature reserve and around June, the zinc violets bloom abundantly there. They already occurred naturally before mining exploitation began. It was an indication that there was zinc in the soil.

Dromos