Link to Website of Flowers of the Messinia region, Greece

[Maggi Young]

 We have received this interesting email from some members in Greece., David and Sarah Bown....they are developing a photo record of the wild flowers in the area of Messinia, where they have an organic  olive farm........ the diversity of the flowers is something of a testament to the success of their methods, I reckon!
The text of their email is below. The link to the Photo Chronicle on their website is this:

http://www.mythical-mani.com/page18/page18.html

To: Scottish Rock Garden Society from Dr.D.P.Bown and Sarah Bown, both members of the SRGC



You may be interested in looking at the following pages of our web site:


Launch of Up-dated Version of The Mediterranean Flower Chronicle - to July 2009
http://www.mythical-mani.com


Building a comprehensive list/photo-album of under-flora at Mesarea Organic Olive Farm,
1,500 feet high on the slopes of the mighty Tayegetos Mountain Range in the Peloponnese, Southern Greece. Over 220 flowering plants have been photographed and identified (some rather tentatively). The list includes 12 different orchids. Our photo journal does not include grasses, ferns or most of the tree species on and around our land. This is a work in progress, our list is no-where near complete........




We are now well into summer and after 9 very busy months, have finally stopped (for now at least) photographing and identifying over 220 different flowering plants found thriving on our terraces. We are now launching the results here on our site. We are thrilled at the range and diversity of the plant populations here, which for us, brilliantly illustrates the values and successes of farming our olives organically. This work will start again in the Autumn.......


Over the many years that olives have been cultivated in the Mediterranean, a unique under-flora has evolved under the trees, adapting to and resulting from, traditional and local cultivation practices. This flora is more recently being threatened by the extensive use of herbicides and the neglect of un-cared for olive groves.


Herbicides are now commonly used to remove the 'weeds' growing under trees (so eliminating the need for strimming or grazing) and in many areas the result has simply been a replacement by herbicide resistant plants such as the Bermuda Buttercup (Oxalis pes-caprae).


As the local population of farmers ages, many terraces are left uncared for and within about five years the resulting vegetation (although more 'natural') is a great deal poorer in the range of plant species present. Olive groves here very quickly turn into impenetrable thickets of Brambles, Smilax, Kermes Oak and Maple, which eventually smother and kill most olive trees, the resulting 'wild land' becoming a "tinderbox" for wild fires.


Other Threats to Local Flora; The only group of Madonna lilies (Lilium candidum) we have found in this area were dug up and concreted over as a new road was bulldozed through a local olive grove. Orchids persist in flowering in the middle or at the edges of our local rough goat track. We wonder why,and how, as we watch and wait for farmers' pick-up trucks to flatten them. One of these was The Bug Orchid (Orchis coriophora fragrans) of which we had only ever spotted three individual plants, another of which had fallen victim to herbicide this spring. We are trying to redress the balance a little by collecting seed and distributing it close-by in less risky locations.


We welcome all involvement here, particularly comments regarding identifications,




From Dr.D.P.Bown and Sarah Jane Bown
Mesarea Olive Farm
Pedino,
Kardamyli,
24022,
Messinia,
GREECE




Our principal reference material;


Mediterranean Wild Flowers: Marjorie Blamey + Christopher Grey-Wilson: Collins 2000
Plants of The Peloponnese: Walter Strasser: A.R.G.Gantner Verlag K.G.
Plant List For Stoupa, Peloponnisos: Lance Chiltern, Marengo publication 2005
Flowers of Greece and The Aegean: Anthony Huxley + William Taylor: Hogarth Press 1989
Alliums, The Ornamental Onions: Batsford 1992
Bulbs: Roger Phillips + Martyn Rix: Pan Books Ltd 1981
Bulbs of Turkey & Iran:Peter Sheasby: Alpine Garden Society 2007
Cyclamen: Christopher Grey-Wilson: Batsford 2002


--

Sarah & Dave BOWN

Mesarea Olive Farm
Pedino,
Kardamyli,
24022,
Messinia,
GREECE


http://www.mythical-mani.com  

[Maggi Young]

I am pleased to be given permission to post a few photos from the Bown's site..... to tempt you to visit  there......

The dates are those the photos were taken on the Bown's land...

Click the pictures to enlarge them......

 Aristolochia longia 8th February
 Barlia robertiana 15th Feb.
 Onosma graeca 19th March
 Phlomis fruiticosa 30th April
 Orobanche 10th May
 Acanthus spinosus 10th June
 Echinops spinosissimus 17th June
 Crocus niveus 23rd October

[Brian Ellis]

Excellent site Dave and Sarah, keep it up, there are some beauties in there.  Thanks for sharing them with us

[Paul T]

Wow, Maggi.  The Onosma graeca is amazing, and that wonderful Aristolochia too.

[cohan]

wow!!!
wonderful!
it sounds like maybe one could buy or rent land cheaply there
the views of the village and the setting are also breathtaking..