Flora Mirabilis: Corfu

Showing posts with label Corfu. Show all posts

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Stellaria cupanii

Corfu, Mars 13, 2012

The Stellaria cupanii is sometimes treated as a subspecies of Stellaria media. There are however several differences, among which the most visible is the number of stamens (always 10 in cupanii; often less, between 3 and 7, in media). Stellaria cupanii is also often confused with Stellaria neglecta; the later however has a single row of hairs on the stem, while the former has the stem uniformely covered with hairs.

Borago officinalis

Corfu, Mars 13, 2012

Anchusa arvensis

Corfu, Mars 13, 2012

Smyrnium olusatrum (alisanders)

Corfu, Mars 13, 2012

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Lunaria annua

Corfu, Mars 13, 2012

Lunaria annua is commonly known as "Silver dollar" or "Chinese money" because of the shape and colour of its seeds. It is also known as "Corfu blue" because it is widespread on the island of Corfu, in the Ionian Sea. The pictures above are taken precisely in Corfu (Kerkyra), in a warm spring afternoon, during a visit to the island with my colleague and friend Yorgos T.

We both had to give lectures in a master class of History and Digital resources and while Yorgos was teaching and I was waiting my turn, I used the opportunity to walk around the so-called New Fortress of the city. I have been pleasantly surprised by the variety and rarity of the wild flowers I encountered, among which the Lunaria here above.