Cyprus the Land of Aphrodite
Carol & David Shaw

Aside from the five hour flight from Glasgow Cyprus is a great place to visit. The Greek Cypriots all speak at least some English, they drive on the left hand side of the road (a great bonus for us Scots.) and there is a large expat. community who are more than happy to chat to folk who have not just come to sit on a beach and sun themselves. We spent a week there in April, staying in a wee village inland from Pafos and hiring a car to explore the island and look at the flowers. Cyprus has a wealth of flowers and many well-marked trails for walking on (though we did totally fail to find the start of one trail!). Due to the Genista sphacelata and its very large thorns it is not wise to go wandering about off the paths and tracks!

Geologically Cyprus is an island pushed up from the sea floor. Chalk derived from the bed of the sea form the rock structure of the lower part of the island to, say, 1000 metres above sea level. This breaks down into a calcium rich clay soils supporting olive groves and vineyards, which produce some very nice drinkable wines! From the end of the chalk to the summit of the mountains the geology is dominated by basic intrusive rocks, mainly gabbros, and extruded pillow lavas; these areas are heavily forested.

Naturally we went up to the Troodos Mountains and walked a 12 kilometre circular trail, which took you round the highest summit Chinistra (Olympus) at approximately 1800 metres. There were steep screes and some rough rocky areas but nothing difficult.



On the Atlante trail in the Troodos Mountains

It took us a good four hours to walk the trail - primarily because we kept stopping to look at the plants!

At times we were in dense pinewood at others on more open screes and rocky areas



Ranunculus millefolius growing in the wooded areas in profusion



Along with Corydalis rutifolia

We were unable to i.d. this tiny Viola with flowers that were only a few millimetres in diameter




The Allysum ranged in colour from pure white to blush pink and is endemic to the Troodos, they preferred cracks in the serpentine rocks where the flowers were in the sun but their roots were cool and moist.



Allysum troodi

Another endemic is Euphorbia cassia ssp. rigoi



The village where we stayed was at about 500 metres above sea level and walking out from it in any direction resulted in fields of plants for us to look at all growing in chalky clays with very little in the way of humus.



Allium neapolitanum in the hedgerow



Muscari comosum growing like a weed in a field of rough grass



Gladiolus triphyllus about 40 centimetres tall - look at the poor quality of the soil.


One of the British expats. told us to be sure to take our walks in the afternoon, we found out why when we discovered this lovely Gynandrisis with flowers that open at midday and wither in the evening



Gynandrisis sisyrinchium


He also advised us to look out for the wonderful 'poppies'






These turned out to be Ranunculus asiaticus red and very pale yellow

We saw him later in the week and decided not to tell him they weren't really poppies at all!

We rarely got to see the same flowers twice, we went back to the same spot a few days later and the Ranunculus flowers were over and some common field poppies were out in their place - we did look for seed of the Ranunculus but it was much too soon.

Cistus flowers all over the island and is known as 'rock rose' by the Cypriots.



Cistus salvifolius

It took us a while to i.d. the following plant



Tragopogon hybridum


Ruins of old buildings abounded like this monastery of the Holy Cross just below Anagyra (the village we stayed in) the inside was covered in frescos and images of the saints.



One day we went over to the far west of the island to walk the Adonis trail, which rises from sea level to around 400 metres above sea level and gave us some wonderful plant finds



The flowering season was almost over for Cyclamen persicum but we managed to see a few plants in flower. We even spotted one corm wedged in a crack in the limestone - a huge fat current bun sized chap - alas un-photographable!




Typical scenery in Cyprus looking out from the Adonis trail



Ophry sphegodes ssp. mammosa could be seen in many places

Another 'rock rose'



Cistus clusii




The Adonis trail had a sting in its tail as we suddenly had to descend 300 metres down quite a steep face - fortunately for me the trail zigzagged like a good Austrian path!

We came across this Serapias in a gorge about 100 metres down from the village



Serapias vomeracea

Along with more 'rock-roses'



Cistus parviflorus

And a real find



Anacamptis pyramidalis

The main challenge for all the plants growing at less than 800 metres above sea level was the huge herds of goats wandering freely and eating everything in their path including this Quercus, which a plaque announced was 500 years old!




Quercus infectoria ssp. veneris

We saw many Arums but all were in positions it was totally impossible to photograph - for example in the middle of a prickly bush, probably hiding from the ravaging herds of goats! When we finally found this one on our last day we could hardly believe our luck!



Arum dioscoridis

Walk anywhere in Cyprus and you will see flowers - on our final day walking along an old farm track I could have posted fifty photos to this article I will leave you with one



Scabiosa prolifera

So it is goodbye to Cyprus until September when we shall return - hopefully to get seed from some of the spring flowering plants and to see the Colchicums and Autumn Crocuses.
If anyone has suggestions of places 'not to miss' we will be pleased to hear from them.



Flower identification came from the following sources:
Mediterranean Wild Flowers by Marjorie Blamey and Christopher Grey-Wilson
Flowers of the Mediterranean by Oleg Polunin and Anthony Huxley
Various local information leaflets

Any errors are purely due to my and David's ignorance!

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