A Botanical Walk on Lemnos

A Botanical Walk on Lemnos



The road from Myrina to Agios Yannis



Onopordum illricum (thistle)



 

I’ve just had a friend staying who knows a lot about plants. She and I went for a walk along a coastal road and were amazed at the number of flowering plants. These were different plants from those flowering when we arrived. The poppies and chamomile daises have passed their best. Now is the time for the hardy summer plants to put forth a show.

 

 

And though there were wonderful views it was the colourful foreground that entranced.



My gardening friend knew the names of many plants and was excited to see plants she had paid $20 for growing here beside the road. However we could not name them all and came home to identify more from the photos I’d taken.




Aromatic scents filled the air as the Albizia trees were in bloom





Albizia flowers



On the rocks were these capparis spinosa plants





 

By the roads stands of Lavatera Arbaria








We decided this was a Salvia triloba with a limonium next to it



A Verbascum



There were plants I did not photograph, that were not quite in flower, such as the Vitex Agnus-Castus, a type of Verbenea.

Others such as the Nerium, or Oleander (also called RoseBay or Pikrodafni in Greece) I did not bother to photograph as these are in flower most of the time we are in Greece.

 



Trying to decided the name of a plant


We could not decide the name of these



We passed a lot of these prickly plants but cound not find the name of these either.

Do you know what this bush is? Is it a type of hypericum?

I’ve said in a previous blog that I don't easily remember Latin names, though I can see why this name helps, after all each Greek island seems to have its own common name for a plant, let alone the numerous other names given to it in other places around the world. So that Origanum is Oregano or Marjoram, and Irises are called Flags in England, or Ariokrinos or Irida in Greece.

 

Common name, Queen Ann's Lace





Euphorbias, but which kind?





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Similarly these Malvas?



 

While we were uncertain about many names we looked through The Flowers of Greece by Maria Letizia Tani and Andrea Innocenti, and Greece, garden of the Gods, by Jennifer Gay and came  up with a few. However I will not name most of these pictures authoritively in case we have identified them wrongly.

 



A Vetch, possibly Ebenus cretica?



Glaucuim flavum?




Is this another type of poppy? When you touch the seeds they spurt out a liquid.





Maybe you will be able to recognize some of these plants?

 

And probably you can if you belong to the Mediterranean Garden Society!

 

 

 



The blue of this unidentified flower was intense