Flowers of Crete encourages interest in Crete's wild flowers
and promotes their conservation.
Flower of the month,
July 2017
Vincetoxicum creticum
This endemic perennial - swallowwort is the English name for the poisonous Vincetoxicum genus - can be found in open rocky places in the high
mountains. This particular plant grows in a dry stream bed high above
Aghios Nikolaos in an open area in mixed woodland.
It is uncommon and
localised and, although the waxy flowers are quite understated, it is
one of my favourite flowers and I always enjoy finding it.
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More flowers month by month here. |
Flowers of Crete holidays and courses
Trips for 2017 are online now. These are:
One week flowers trip 14 - 21 March
Flowers of Crete Flower Finding Trip with John Fielding, 4 -11 April
Late-flowering orchids, 24 - 31 May
Autumn bulbs, 1 or 2 weeks, 17 - 24 October or
17 - 31 October
Information about our trips is on our holidays page.
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 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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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. |
