Flowers of Crete encourages interest in Crete's wild flowers
and promotes their conservation.
Flower of the month - September 2016
Crocus boryii
This striking white autumn crocus can be found in all parts of Crete. With its large, white flowers, showy orange styles and white anthers it is fairly easy to recognise. This specimen was photographed on a dry, rocky north facing slope close to Elounda, east of Heraklion.
It is closely related to two other autumn flowering species, Crocus tournfortii and Crocus laevigatus. One of the loveliest of the flowers to be found in September, providing the winter rains have arrived early. More flowers month by month here. |
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News
Oliver Rackham 'commemorative symposium': to celebrate the life of landscape historian
and author of The Making of the Cretan Landscape, who died last year, there was a commemorative symposium in the UK (Cambridge) in August 2016. More in news.
Bellevalia juliana: a new flower for Crete, named after Flowers of Crete founder, Julia Jones. More in news. Photoset of Bellevalia juliana by Stephen Lenton on Facebook start here.
Wild Orchid Conservation workshop, led by Phil Seaton and FoC's Julia Jones, 1st - 6th June 2015 in Hungary. More in news here >
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. |
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Flowers of Crete holidays and courses
Flowers of Crete holidays and courses 2016 are open for bookings. Details of flower and orchid-finding trips in spring and summer plus autumn bulb finding are all on our holidays page. Food Foraging and Discovery Trips, and a botanic art workshop with Julia Jones in October 2016, are on our specialist holidays page.
Getting started with Crete's wonderful flowers
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. |
