Flowers of Crete encourages interest in Crete's wild flowers
and promotes their conservation.
Flower of the month - March 2015
Bituminaria bituminosa
Pitch trefoil may not be everyone's favourite plant on account of the smell of tar (pitch) when leaves are rubbed, or in warm weather. Presumably that deters browsers — has anyone seen a goat eating it?
But the distinctive scent makes it a fun plant to show to non-botanists and the clover-like heads of violet flowers can bring a dash of colour to waste ground and roadsides.
It can be found though much of southern Europe, flowering from now until well into the autumn.
More flowers month by month here. |
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News
Oliver Rackham OBE 1939-2015.
Landscape historian
and author of
The Making of the Cretan Landscape has died. More in news.
Wild Orchid Conservation workshop, led by Phil Seaton and FoC's Julia Jones, 1st - 6th June 2015 in Hungary. More in news here >
Orders are now being taken for the Flowers of Crete 2015 calendar featuring endemic flowers of the island in original images by Julia Jones.
Calendars cost £12 (14 euros) including post and packing. Payment can be made by PayPal to julia@jjbotanicart.com or by UK Bank transfer.
Please ask for further details. |
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Cretan fritillary is an endemic subspecies found only on the island, according to research at the University of Patras. See news here >
Conserving the Cretan Lizard Orchid. Himantoglossum
samariense (right) is one of Crete's most elusive and threatened plants. Julia Jones from Flowers of Crete describes recent efforts to find and protect it - read the full story here.
Flowers of Crete holidays and courses 2015 are now open for bookings. Details of orchid-finding trips in spring and summer orchid-finding trips plus autumn bulb finding all on our holidays page. Food Foraging and Discovery Trips, and a botanic art workshop with Julia Jones in October 2015, are on our specialist holidays page. |
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With some 1700 species of flowers native to Crete, of which 10 per cent are endemic, you may wonder where to start. One way is to click on the photos below. You can find out what these flowers are, and see our Flowers of Crete introductory web pages ...
Saving the Cretan Palm
The Cretan palm Phoenix theophrastii is found only on the coast of Crete and south-western Turkey, and on Crete is best known from Vai and Préveli.
The red palm weevil, sadly sometimes imported on cultivated palm species, is a serious threat to the near-endemic Cretan palm and every effort needs to be taken to try to stop its progress.
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You can help by keeping an eye out of the weevil and its grubs and reporting news to Flowers of Crete.
More here. |
