PROTECTED AREA SCHOOL CALENDAR PROJECT: FLORA AND FAUNA OF LAKE COVEL, ITALY

by Donatella Marchetti 

In 2019 I started a collaboration with the B. Russell Scientific High School in Cles, Italy thanks to my son Leonardo who, participating in the project, asked me if I could create an illustration of a typical plant for the creation of a brochure on the peat bog of the Val di Pejo.

After receiving all the photos and notes taken by Leonardo and his school-work associate Matese, I immediately set to work to find a plant that could be important for this purpose, and so I chose Eriophorum latifolium, called Broad-leaved Bog Cotton.

This work was chosen for the brochure that will be distributed in the area to raise local awareness of the protection of the peat bog with its flora and fauna.

In 2020 I continued the collaboration with my son and his school for the realization of a 2021/2022 school calendar. They asked me for various works on the flora and fauna of Lake Covel so that they could then choose twelve, so as to cover each month with an illustration. I got to work immediately. Since summer had just begun, I took the opportunity to go there, and I also went to the peat bog of the Passo del Tonale where there are many typical flowers, such as Eriophorum and Pulsantilla. The illustration of so many subjects took me a lot of time. First I took notes, then I took samples such as lichen and berries. I contacted local fauna experts and thanks to the work of my son and his school mates, I had a lot of information for good illustrations.

I was thus able to illustrate flowers such as Ranunculus bolbosus, Scheuczeria palustris (flower dedicated by Linnaeus to his brothers), Drosena which means "covered with dew" due to the effect of the glittering glands of its leaves. For the fauna I studied some lizards and butterflies such as Zootoca vivipara and Cholias croceus and the alpine lizards.

In some illustrations I used the mixed technique of graphite pencil and watercolor, others only colored pencil. Some subjects lent themselves better to the delicacy of watercolor and others like Drosena where the pencil helped me to emphasize the glands of the leaf. 

The captions on the images are in Italian and were written by my son Leonardo to give interesting information on the illustrated subject. It was a long but beautiful and interesting journey. I thank my son Leonardo for the opportunity to work with him and thank the Liceo B.Russell in Cles for the wonderful calendar soon to be distributed.