Just in case anyone thinks I have abandoned botany these days, here is a taste of what we had been doing between field meetings. We joined a Wildlife Travel holiday for the second year running, trying to hurry along the arrival of the flowering season. Last year it was Morocco and this year we fulfilled a long-held ambition of mine, to go to Lesvos in the spring.
Even before we arrived in our hotel on the far side of the island from the airport at Mytilini, our eyes were delighted by the botanical riches in store for us. There were the familiar plants of the Mediterranean with their admixture of plants from Asia Minor. It is not Merioneth, and so is perhaps not so interesting for British botanists to read, so I will simply post a selection of pictures which I hope will give a flavour
of our lovely holiday.
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Lavandula stoechas, French Lavender,
the iconic plant of the Med |
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The diminutive Cichorium pumilum,
an eastern Mediterranean specialist |
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Serapias cordigera lurking in the leaves
of an Urginea, a Sea Squill |
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| Another Mediterranean particular! |
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The well-armed and venomous-looking
Centaurea urvillei |
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| Tulipa hageri, rather closed up on a damp day |
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| Fritillaria pontica |
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Ophrys reinholdii,
an Eastern Mediterranean endemic |
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Silybum marinum, Holy Thistle ,
another plant I always associate with Southern Europe |
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Cephalanthera damasonia -
one of my very favorite plants
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| Molyvos harbour from the hotel............. |
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A Praying Mantis,
Empusa fasicata
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| .and a long view of our bay. |
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