Wednesday, April 30, 2014

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)

Thursday, April 24, 2014

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).

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

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.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

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.