Wild orchids

Orchids are my favourite group of plants. They are fascinating mainly because they are beautiful and interesting and although there are many species none of them is common.

Orchids have been arousing passions for a long time. In the Victorian era adventurous individuals embarked on orchid hunting trips in central and south America and Asia mainly to collect specimens for gardeners and horticulturalists in Europe and the USA. They often went back home with large numbers of rare species and long tales about their dangerous expeditions. 

Today many orchids are legally protected and it is not allowed to collect or export them. Although illegal trade in orchids still exists modern orchid hunters collect images. They are equipped with cameras, identification books and notebooks and often publish their results in specialist websites. Some restrict their hunting to a particular country or area while others travel and wide.

In Malta orchids can be found from the end of December to early June most species are in flower in March and April. 

Thirty eight species of orchids have been recorded in the Maltese islands. Over the past two decades the number of recorded species has increased partly because new species have been found by plant enthusiasts but also because what was considered as one species, the brown orchid, is now considered to be five different species. 

These species belong to a group known as the insect orchids. Male insects, especially bees and wasps, are attracted to the flowers which look like female members of the species. They land on them and attempt to mate. While their attempts to mate are unsuccessful they unknowingly end up with pollen on their back which is then transferred to another orchid of the same species which manages to trick them into landing on it. 

Some species of orchids enhance their performance by producing chemicals known as pheromones similar to pheromones used by female insects to attract males.

Finding, photographing and identifying orchids is an interesting and challenging hobby that can give days, weeks and months of satisfaction.

This article was published in The Times on 29.02.2012

Sand crocus

The sand-crocus is a small flowering plant that must to be looked at closely to be appreciated properly. 

It is found throughout the Mediterranean area. In Malta it grows in patches of shallow soil in rocky areas. It is a perennial plant which spends the dry summer months beneath the surface as a bulb. 

In autumn, following the first substantial rainfall it produces a small number of slender leaves. The first flowers appear in February when the surrounding vegetation is still green and they continue to flower until April by which time much of the surrounding vegetation begins to dry up.

In Maltese it is known as żagħfran tal-blat. Another similar but less common species, the Maltese sand-crocus (żagħfran tal-blat ta’ Malta) is endemic to the Maltese islands. This species is distinguished from the more widespread species by having very narrow petals.

The sand-crocuses belong to a genus known as the Romulea. The name of this genus is derived from that of Romulus one of the two brothers who are said to have founded Rome because one member of this genus is very common in the Roman countryside.

The sand-crocuses belong to the iris family. This family is represented in the Maltese islands by several species of irises including the barbary nut (fjurdulis salvaġġ) and the southern dwarf iris (bellus), the field gladiolus (ħabb il-qamħ tar-raba) and the crocuses. 

This article was published in The Times on 02.02.2011

Autumn - a time for rebirth and growth

Mediterranean meadow-saffron (Colchicum cupanni)

In Malta, as in many other parts of the world, the year is divided into four seasons. 

In temperate regions autumn is generally regarded as a melancholic season that announces the end of summer, the arrival of winter darkness and cold stormy weather. Most Maltese have been brought up with this idea when in actual fact autumn in Malta is a time of rebirth and growth.

In ecological terms the Maltese year can be divided into two approximately equal seasons; the wet season and the dry season. Autumn is the beginning of the rainy season which comes immediately after six months of heat and drought. 

The first autumn rains bring life back to the parched countryside changes from brown to green as the seeds of annual plants which had been dormant in the soil throughout the dry season start germinating. 

The rains also stimulate plants which survive the dry season as bulbs, corms or tubers to start growing again. Some species such as the Mediterranean meadow saffron (busieq) flowers a few days after the first rains. The flowers appear before the leaves emerge from underground. 

This gives these plants an advantage over other autumn flowering plants as they have to compete with fewer flowers to attract bees and other pollinating insects. The flowers of the meadow saffron are soon followed by others such as the autumn ladies tresses (ħajja u mejta tal-ħarifa) a small rare orchid. 

The list of autumn flowering plants includes the yellow-throated crocus (żagħfran selvaġġ) and, the autumn narcissus (narċis imwaħħar)

Carob trees (siġar tal-ħarrub), which are either male or female, flower from mid-October to mid-November. The flowers have a strong smell of decomposing vegetation which attracts flies which inadvertently carry pollen from one tree to another.

The rains also stimulate many species of fungi to put forth the fruiting bodies with which we are familiar. 

This article was published in The Times on 3.10.2010

The common fresia - a member of South Africa's iris family

The freesia is another non-indigenous species that was cultivated in Maltese gardens that now grows in the Maltese countryside. It is a South African member of the iris family. There are about 16 species of freesias. 

Fourteen are native to the Cape Province in South Africa and two are found in tropical Africa as far north as Sudan. The genus was named after Friedrich Heinrich Theodor Freese, a German physician who lived between 1795 and 1876.

The common freesia, which is known in Maltese as freżja, has grassy foliage, and wiry spikes of bell-like, lemon-scented flowers in white, yellow, orange and blue. A few decades ago only white-coloured freesias were cultivated but nowadays many other varieties and hybrids can be found in flower and gardening shops. These usually are larger than the old variety and come in an incredible variety of colours. 

Due to their specific and pleasing scent, they are often used in the manufacture of hand creams, shampoos and candles.

In Malta the common freesia can be found growing in such places as Buskett Gardens and the grounds of Verdala Palace. It manages to grow wild because parts of South Africa, where this species comes from, like the Maltese islands has a Mediterranean climate. 

This climate is characterised by warm to hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters. South Africa is not the only part of the world with a similar climate to ours. This climatic type is also found in much of California, in parts of Western and South Australia, and in parts of central Chile.

Freesias are used as a food plant by the larvae of some moth species including the large yellow underwing, known in Maltese as baħrija safra kbira. This is a very common species of moth found throughout most of Europe and North Africa extending east all the way to India. It can be seen between March and May and again between August and November. 

This article was published in The Times on 17.02.2010

Poppies - long used as a symbol of sleep and death

Poppies are among the most common spring flowers in Malta. The most familiar is the common poppy which grows in very large numbers in cultivated fields but one should take up the challenge and try to spot the other species which also thrive in the Maltese islands. 

At least five other less familiar but still common species of poppy can be found without difficulty if one looks carefully at the flowers growing in fields and along country paths at this time of the year.

The opium poppy (xaħxieħ vjola) has large violet flowers and is easily identified. Less showy but just as interesting is the bristly poppy (peprin tal-lanżit) which has claret flowers and bristly fruit. The other two common species are the long-headed poppy (pepprin tal-frotta twila) and the Mediterranean poppy (pepprin tal-istammi sofor). Another species is the yellow horned poppy (pepprin isfar) which flowers later in spring on disturbed land close to the coast.

Most poppy species have been grown in gardens and some are used for both drugs and food. The opium poppy is cultivated in large quantities for opium and opiates as well as for poppy seed which is used in cooking and baking and poppy seed oil. Poppies have long been used as a symbol of sleep and death because of the opium extracted from them and the red colour. 

In some cultures they are used as emblems in tombstones to symbolize eternal sleep and resurrection.

The poppies are just a handful of the large number of flowering plants that one can find in the Maltese countryside. Over one thousand species of flowering flowers have been recorded. 

This article was publishen in the Times on 07.04.10