Greece autumn 2018

[sokol]

Thanks for your help Yain, I have changed the names. I do not know insects so well, this name is new to me.
I always confuse the Latin names of these two Quercus species as you have noticed. The German names are totally clear to me.

Don't worry about the Crocus names, they are correct.

[Yann]

I hope this will give travel ideas to forum's members for the 2019 fall.

[Gabriela]

That picture with the mantis is quite something Stefan!

How nice to look at these flowers, especially that it got cold so fast this fall. If my few Sternbergia seedlings survive the winter I shall plant them under a rock

[sokol]

If my few Sternbergia seedlings survive the winter I shall plant them under a rock

They like it hot, most grow in south facing places. But this can also be quite high in the mountains. I have seen Sternbergia sicula up to 1500 m asl in Greece.

[sokol]

Speaking of Sternbergia, the next place we visited close to Lambokambos next morning was full of them but nearly all were faded.

It was the first place of this trip with four Crocus species (boryi, goulimy, melantherus and niveus). We have spent much time there as we did last year. And it is also a good orchid place, friends have been there in April.

Till yesterday I have uploaded pictures till 400KB without any problem. Today it seems to be restricted to 200KB and it took some time to make them all smaller. So it is a rather short report today as I have no more time left for more.

Not possible to upload any picture even smaller 200KB. So I will add them later.

Biotope:




Crocus goulimyi

[sokol]

And some more of Crocus goulimyi

[sokol]

There were lots of Cyclamen hederifolium around.

[sokol]

Still at the same place a very last Colchicum bivonae


And another neighboring biotope with Sternbergia sicula in flower




Crocus melantherus again and again


Crocus niveus often flowering along the roads and very dry stony places.

[David Nicholson]

Fascinating trip Stefan.

[sokol]

Thanks David! We are still happy that we had such a nice weather and so many impressions.

[sokol]

We have had a short break from the plants around midday and went the street down to the coast at Kiparissi, again 28°C.

[Gabriela]

Super beautiful, thanks again for taking the time to post Stefan.
What you mentioned with the size of the pictures happened to me as well, I don't know the reason.

I've been watching a lot of pictures from the wild with Sternbergia and I think it is worth a try. It gets very hot in S Ontario (most summers) and in a full sun/good drainage location the only remaining problem would be to protect them from the cold rains of spring/late fall. You can certainly grow C. hederifolium here.

[sokol]

It is worth a try Gabriela. They are growing well here for years. My best ones originate from Mt. Menalon in the middle of the Peloponnese at 1500m where it can be quite ugly with many rain in spring and fall.

[sokol]

We crossed a vast area with low shrubs and nothing but goats and sheep on dirt roads after leaving the coast. There was nothing new but many nice biotopes that could be interesting also in spring.

[sokol]

We didn't spent much time there as we wanted to visit a location with snowdrops in the Taygetos. It was not the best time of the day and it was already rather dark there under the plane trees but we have found them.

Galanthus reginae-olgae






 Galanthus reginae-olgae Pel231 Langada 20181102 (22k).jpg (29.91 kB. 466x700 - viewed 45 times.)