Urospermum Dalechampii

Urospermum dalechampii, common name: Smooth Golden Fleece, is a perennial herbaceous Mediterranean plant belonging to the genus Urospermum of the Asteraceae family.

The flower heads are yellow sulfur, about five centimeter wide. Involucral bracts vary from seven to eight. Blooms are abundant throughout the Spring. The flowering period extends from March through August. The long, beaked fruit is an achene, and has a feathery, slightly reddish pappus.

According to a very interesting blog I follow named:  http://anentangledbank.wordpress.com/  the plants name Urospermum is from the shape of the seed, and dalechampii is because it was described by the botanist and doctor Jacques Dalechamps (1513-1588) in his Historia generalis plantarum in 1586,

 Jacques Dalechamps (1513-1588)

Cami de Cavalls. Cala Galdana to Binigaus.

Walking along the coastal path called Cami de Cavalls. About 10 kilometers from Cala Galgana, in the South Coast towards Binigaus and Santo Tomas.

Horse riding at Cala Mitjana.

The first swim of the year. Not a good idea. Water was freezing!

Trifolium Stellatum. 

This Mediterranean plant has short stems and soft hairy leaves and the small white flowers which bloom in Menorca in April and May are held together in rounded heads and each is surrounded by a crimson star-shaped calyx. When in fruit the flower heads with their white soft hairs, look even more like clusters of stars against the backdrop of beach pebbles. The whole plant is prostrate and forms large mats on the upper beach. This plant known as Starry Clover is very rare in the UK. It Flowers in June on the shingle of Shoreham Beach, its only location in the British Isles. This small naturalised ground plant has been known from this area for two centuries (discovered in 1804).

El Fonduco

1930's Horse ploughin at El Fonduco. The house that once was the home of Admiral Collingwood and that it became the Hotel del Almirante some decades later.

Bright Red Poppy

Papaver rhoeas (common names include corn poppy, corn rose, field poppy, Flanders poppy, red poppy, red weed, coquelicot, and, due to its odour, which is said to cause them, as headache and headwark) is a species of flowering plant in the poppy family, Papaveraceae. This poppy, a native of Europe, is notable as an agricultural weed (hence the "corn" and "field") and as a symbol of fallen soldiers.

The plant is a variable annual, forming a long-lived soil seed bank that can germinate when the soil is disturbed. In the northern hemisphere it generally flowers in late spring, but if the weather is warm enough other flowers frequently appear at the beginning of autumn. 

Due to the extent of ground disturbance in warfare during World War I , corn poppies bloomed in between the trench lines and no man's land on the Western Front. Poppies are a prominent feature of "In Flanders Fields" by Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, one of the most frequently quoted English-language poems composed during the First World War. During the 20th century, the wearing of a poppy at and before Remembrance Day each year became an established custom in most western countries. It is also used at some other dates in some countries, such as at appeals for Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand.

In Menorca it is very commong at Spring.

50 Shades of blue...maybe more

Sunny but windy morning. Just perfect for a stroll along the South Coast. Amazing colours, and the sun is warm enough. I officially declare the winter is over.

Wild Flowers

 Malva sylvestris is a species of the mallow genus Malva in the family of Malvaceae and is considered to be the type species for the genus. Known as common mallow to English speaking Europeans, it acquired the common names of cheeses, high mallow and tall mallow (mauve des bois by the French) as it migrated from its native home in Western Europe, North Africa and Asia through the English speaking world.  

M. sylvestris is a vigorously healthy plant with showy flowers of bright mauve-purple, with dark veins; a handsome plant, often standing 3 or 4 feet (1 m) high and growing freely in fields, hedgerows and in fallow fields.

Allium triquetrum is a bulbous flowering plant in the genus Allium (onions and garlic)  native to the Mediterranean Basin. Common names include wild garlic (used for many Allium species) and three-cornered leek. It was described by Carl Linnaeus and first published at Species Plantarum in 1753.

All parts of the plant, from the bulb to the flowers, are edible fresh (for example in pestos) or cooked, with "a subtle flavour like leek or spring onion.

 

Wild-olive tree

Olea oleaster, the wild-olive tree, has been considered by various botanists a valid species and a subspecies of the cultivated olive tree, Olea Europaea, which is a tree of multiple origins that was domesticated, it now appears, at various places during the fourth and third millennia BCE, in selections drawn from varying local populations.

Sprays of tiny, lightly scented white to greenish flowers (March to July) are followed (October to February) by small, spherical, thinly fleshy fruits (either sweet or sour) which ripen purple-black.



The hard, heavy and beautiful golden-brown wood is used for furniture and in Menorca to made the traditional Menorcan fences.