Albania in Spring

Saturday 3 – Monday 12 May 2025

Report from MPG members Andrew Mayo and Lesley Jones

Photo contributions from John Fielding, Lesley Jones, Andrew Mayo, Jenny Mayo, and Oron Peri

Albania is a country still emerging from communist rule which held it behind the rest of Europe until 1990, but is developing rapidly. It has wonderful scenery, remote winding mountain roads, unspoilt wilderness, a feast of cultural and historical interest and an amazing diversity of flora and fauna.

Our experienced botanical guide and fellow member, Oron Peri, had researched the country thoroughly and knew exactly where to stop for something special throughout our tour. Eleven members joined him, walked about 50km and returned home having seen and recorded some 300 species.

Day 1 – Saturday 3 May

Our group gathered around 18.30 at Tirana airport. Two comfortable seven-seater minibuses took us north east to the Qafshtame National Park via the town of Kruje to the end of a twisty mountain road and the beautifully situated Shkreli Resort.

Shkreli Resort Qaftshame National Park

Dusk fell as we entered the mountains, but Oron kept a beady eye open to pick out special plants for us to see on our return in two days. After a simple meal and (for most) a glass of Albanian wine, we retired in anticipation.

Very tasty byrek me spinaq

Day 2 – Sunday 4 May – Qafshtame National Park

After breakfast we set off climbing steadily to botanise on the mountain above our hotel. Enjoying beautiful views, we soon came across a variety of plants. The yellow Alkanna pindicola, found only in the Balkan peninsula and northern Greece and a lone Geranium reflexum with its reflexed petals were particularly interesting.

Our first orchids also, Dactylorhiza sambucina, mainly pale yellow but occasional red/deep pink variations. Beautiful Veronica chamaedrys popped out from rockfaces and exquisite Viola tricolor ssp. balcanica peppered the landscape. After lunch we wandered down the hill from the resort searching for bird’s nest orchids (Neottia nidus-avis) in the forest but found only last year’s stems. We did find bushes of Daphne oleoides, not yet in flower.

Dactylorhiza sambucina

Day 3 – Monday 5 May – to Valbonë

After an early breakfast we retraced the winding road downwards. First stop was for a feast of the carnivorous Pinguicula hirtiflora on a wet rockface.

Pinguicula hirtiflora

Shortly afterwards, we were rewarded with the exquisite Ramonda serbica, clinging to rocks and crevices and mainly found in Albania and parts of Bulgaria. Nearby was Moltkia petraea, from the borage family and local to the Balkans and Greece.

Ramonda serbica

Anacamptis laxiflora

Lilium albanicum

Day 4 – Tuesday 6 May – Valbonë Valley National Park

The park is a deep valley situated in the southernmost part of the Dinaric Alps and bordering on Montenegro, with towering snow-capped mountains either side. The valley is practically a vast gorge with only three places where it is possible to enter the high mountains. After a ‘hiker’s’ breakfast, an ancient minibus took us up a bumpy track from the valley at 900m to about 1300m via the hamlet of Kukaj.  Once walking, we were quickly rewarded with a splendid plant of Paeonia arietina, which saved us a very steep climb up to the main colony. It became clear that this was late season and many expected plants on the mountains had not yet flowered. This is also the day when we were likely to get wet. Mid-morning did bring a couple of heavy showers but the thick beech woods gave shelter.  Here we were also delighted to find a few flowers of Fritillaria messanensis ssp. neglecta and clumps of cowslips, the interesting Cardamine bulbifera with little bulbils up its stem, plus other alpine flora.

Paeonia arietina

Fritillaria messanensis ssp. neglecta

Most people walked back the long way down to the hotel. We were surprised to find one lonely Ophrys insectiferus on the roadside and more surprised by a large flock of sheep making their way home in the opposite direction to us on a narrow track.

Ophrys insectiferus

Make way, sheep passing through!

Iris x seminaturalis

After lunch we headed south to the western edge of Albania’s highest mountain, Mt Korab (2764m). With its snowy slopes as background we stopped by a field of Orchis morio, a fine clump of the handsome Silene atropurpurea and a beautiful group of Iris mediterranea.

Iris mediterranea

And so to the busy provincial centre of Peshkopi for our night’s rest.

Day 6 – Thursday 8 May

After breakfast we continued on our way south close to the border with North Macedonia, our final destination being the Shebenik Jablanice National Park.  After about 25km we turned off to a road that was expected to be a stony, bumpy long ride, only to find it had recently been resurfaced. Our first stop was a small hill, covered in Orchis morio and Serapias burgonii with other semi alpine plants. A few kilometres further on, the eagle-eyed Oron spied a few plants of Ophrys sphegodes ssp. epirotica on an accessible bank.

We climbed to 1100m and wandered in a meadow clearly awaiting the full season but nevertheless with much interest, notably Melittis melasophyllum, a handsome plant.  A little further some limestone rock outcrops gave us more plants of the Ramonda serbica and Aethionema saxatile ssp. graecum and Paronychia albanicum in the crevices. One more gem before our lunch stop was the cushion like Euphorbia glabriflora in the screes.

In the smallholdings, a scene from old times, a shire horse pulled a plough guided from behind and the local ladies were planting potatoes in the drill.

Lunch was in the excellent and most famous trout farm restaurant in Albania and was very good.

A short run took us to our modest but comfortable accommodation in the village of Fushe Studen.  We walked into the wet meadows opposite and the woods at the edge, with Narcissus poeticus, Caltha palustris, and Viola reichenbachiana.

Our hosts served an excellent meal, featuring a casserole of roast lamb in yoghurt sauce.

Day 7 – Friday 9 May

After a tasty breakfast, we started by visiting a nearby lake and the woods beyond it. The lake was full of newts but no fish to be seen. We finally did find the Bird’s nest orchid (Neottis nidis-avis) albeit only in bud. We proceeded southwards hugging the western edge of the National Park. We stopped by a large rock wall and walked some way along it. Its speciality was Edraianthus graminifolius but a range of plants could be found such as Erysimum sp. and Iberis sempervirens.

Edraianthus graminifolius

The road reopened and we headed south west to Berat, with a stop at an amazing floral bank covered with Gladiolus illyricus interspersed with Salvia viridis and Serapis burgonii, and behind the bank an olive grove full of flowers including Anacamptis piramidalis.

A final stop about 20km north of our goal was at some woods full of Iris sintenisii, with Orchis apifera and O. Scolopax, Prunella laciniata, the alien jujube Ziziphus ziziphus in flower, and others – plus a very large tortoise!

Tragopogon bosnaicus

A hundred metres higher was a bank covered with Phlomis fruticosa and some plants of Hypericum olympicum. At about 1800m we found the endemic Astragalus autranii and Orchis provincialis. Shortly afterwards the road divided and we took a steep stony track which climbed a further 700m to the summit. At the top was a Bekhshavist shrine to the holy man Abaz Aliu, from an Islamic sect largely confined to Albania. The road enabled us effortlessly (more or less) to see some great plants. Stopping fairly soon and well into the Montane Zone we had clumps of Narcissus poeticus ssp. radiiflorus once again, with Erysimum kuemmerlei, the delightful white Phyllolepidum cyclocarpum subsp. pindicum and others; approaching the first snow patches brought Corydalis solida ssp. incisa, Scilla bifolia, Draba lasiocarpa and a crocus thought to be Crocus tomoricus, or a form of Crocus veluchensis. It needs to be tested genetically to determine which.

Finally at the summit in the loose screes was the endemic and very eye-catching Ranunculus brevifolia.

Scenes from Berat and its castle

Our afternoon was free and then we met and walked to our final dinner at the wonderfully named Zgara Zaloshnjia , a traditional restaurant.  Enjoying the meal we reflected on our feast of flora of the last nine days, and thanked our guide Oron for his exceptional knowledge, preparation and patience.

Day 10 – Monday 12 May

We left Berat after an early breakfast and arrived, without delays, to a rather busy Tirana Airport for our various flights.

Thanks must go to Oron Peri, our two drivers and all from MPG who organised and made this special trip to Albania possible.

And we will always wonder who left their trousers hanging in the wonderful scenery of Albania!