Preserved internal alpine forest

The extreme and stressful climatic conditions give way to the growth of plant species with secondary metabolites important for medicinal purposes.

Origanum vulgare, Prunella vulgaris, Solanum nigrum and Urtica dioica are some of the more useful medicinal species found in the Alps.[78]

Preserved internal alpine forest and meadow, Vanoise National Park
Human interference has nearly exterminated the trees in many areas, and, except for the beech forests of the Austrian Alps, forests of deciduous trees are rarely

found after the extreme deforestation between the 17th and 19th centuries.[79] The vegetation has changed since the second half of the 20th century, as the high alpine meadows cease to be harvested for hay or used for grazing which eventually might result in a regrowth of forest.

In some areas the modern practice of building ski runs by mechanical means has destroyed the underlying tundra from which the plant life cannot recover during the non-skiing months, whereas areas that still practice a natural piste type of ski slope building preserve the fragile underlayers.[77]