Northern Greece 2007

[art600]

My visits to Greece had always been to the Peloponnese, until May 2007 when I visited northern Greece with the objective of seeing Crocus civjicii, veluchensis and pelistericus, together with Fritillaria epirotica and montana.  A friend had been in 2000 and saw huge areas of flowers in fairly cold and miserable weather.
We flew by Easyjet to Athens, having prebooked a car, but no hotels.  The big surprise was the weather - very hot - probably 10C higher than average.
Here are some of the sights we saw.
Meteora
Iris suaveolens
Iris suaveolens
Orchids - would appreciate identifications - thanks to Gerhard Ruschan 207/9 are Orchis mascula and 210/1 are Dactylorhiza romana 

[art600]

On the Katara Pass we saw Fritillaria epirotica

[art600]

Frit montana

[art600]

On Mount Vermion we saw just a few Crocus civjicii, Gentian.  Going through one of the villages near Vermion, we were surprised to see that storks are provided with nest sites.

[art600]

Crocus veluchensis and pelistericus

[art600]

And other beautiful flowers, including Narcissus, viola and a possible hybrid Crocus

It was an unforgettable holiday, but I think I will return in the future when I hope the weather will be average and the flowers in far greater numbers.

[Lvandelft]

It was an unforgettable holiday, but I think I will return in the future when I hope the weather will be average and the flowers in far greater numbers.

And please don't forget your camera
Arthur, it is so nice to see so many beautiful plants in the original places.
Thank you for sharing them with us.
Luit

[Gerry Webster]

Art, wonderful photos. What a delightful little plant F. epirotica is.

[hadacekf]

Arthur,
Thanks for the great pictures of plants from Greece; I have good memories of some places.

[Gerhard Raschun]

many thanks for these wonderful picts !

pict 207-209 Orchis mascula
pict 210 + 211 Dactylorhiza romana

[art600]

Thank you Gerhard

[Hans A.]

@Arthur - thanks for this wonderful photos.
@Gerhard- this O.mascula look like Orchis mascula subsp. pinetorum, is this possible ? - do not know the exact distribution of this ssp.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Wonderful little report Hans, be it with 9 or 10 months delay 
Beautiful scenery and great plants, live in their habitat !
Thanks a lot for showing us.

[art600]

Luc
It took me more than 10 months to learn how to post on the Forum.

[Gerhard Raschun]

@ Hans: My first thought was that this plant belongs to ssp. signifera (look to the petals)

O. mascula ssp. pinetorum grews from Yugoslavia eastern to Caucasus.It is possible to find it in pine forests (name !!!).But it`s difficult to ID such plants, because there are a lot of intermediate hybrids (crossing stages)