The answer my friend ....

My clump of Ramonda myconi is sending up buds with the promise of many sugar icing flowers.  The stems and the buds are covered with tiny sticky hairs ...... which catch things that have been blowing in the wind.

Ramonda is a very special plant in my mind.  A member of the Gesneriaceae - think African Violets and Streptocarpus - it grows wild in the Pyrenees where I saw it on my first alpine flower holiday.  It's often found growing on vertical rock faces and boulders in relatively shady places.  I'll share the flowers in due course :-)