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| Almond leaved Pear, Pyrus spinosa |
From
the springs of Paraspori it is a short hop to the village of Achladia
which, in Greek, means pears which is as good a reason as any to stop
by the side of the road and take a look at some wild ones. Now you
may think that a pear is a pear is a pear but there are over twenty
different species of wild pear to say nothing of the three thousand
or so varieties that have been cultivated from just three of those
species; Pyrus communis being
the one we are most familiar with in Europe and America.
This one however is
not Pyrus communis but
Pyrus spinosa, the
Almond leaved Pear. One of the main differences between the two
species, which I feel duty bound to point out before you finish
filling your bag with them, is that these are not only inedible but
toxic. Foraging is a delightful hobby but can be deadly. A golden
rule should be Never
assume that you can consume.
 |
| Grapevine, Vitis sp. |
And
now to a plant that is not only edible but deliciously quaffable when
fermented and bottled. As far as I am aware there are no poisonous
grapes but before you go a-snaffling have you checked that they
haven't been sprayed with something unpleasant? Just a thought. We
are now in the wine making area of Sitia where some of the best wines
in Crete are produced (yes, we can try some later – in the spirit
of research of course). Wine has been made on the island for maybe four thousand years [1] and Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos was fond of a
glass or two with Dionysos and, seeing as he is the Greek God of
wine, he should have known where to come for a good tipple. Everyone
has a grapevine so lets take a closer look at this one straggling
along the fence at the edge of the car park (grapevines are not fussy
about where they grow).
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| Vine Hawkmoth, Hippotion celerio |
Now
here's a familiar face poking out from beneath this leaf, it's the
caterpillar of a Vine Hawkmoth Hippotion
celerio. At
first glance one may think that this is a large eyed caterpillar with
a ferocious stinger about to decimate the grape harvest but it's all
smoke and mirrors. The eyespot is pure mimicry to confuse predators
and has no physiological function at all. Similarly that stinger is
purely decorative as well. Leastways no-one has found a function for
it as far as I know – it certainly doesn't sting. In fact it is
quite soft to the touch. All caterpillars of the hawkmoth family have
them and in some countries they are known as hornworms (a misnomer as
they are not worms at all of course). Finally, he's no great pest to
the grapevine. If you remember I had one on my grapevine back in May
which I named Jeremy.
He ate seven leaves before he pupated and they soon grew back.
Incidentally I promised to show him to you when he emerged but I'm
not sure that I ever did so here he is. Splendid looking fellow isn't
he?
 |
| Shield Bug egg cases |
Now,
what else do we have? This beautiful piece of geometric artwork on
the underside of this leaf comes to us from our old friend the Shield
bug. Each of these little cells contained a single egg with a
provision of food from which emerged a miniature adult bug, albeit
with different colouration to its final livery. I count about one
hundred cases here, each with a tiny lid, and it would appear that
about seventy of them hatched which isn't a bad success rate. I'll
take them home and see if there are any late developers but don't
hold your breath. I think that this clutch is done.
 |
| Hibiscus, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis |
That
seems to have exhausted the possibilities of this little vine so
let's wander back through the village and have a quick look at the
flowers. Many of the flowers that you see adorning the villages don't
appear in Cretan flora guides for the simple reason that they are not
native to the island. What you see here for instance (no, not the
taverna) is an Hibiscus, Hibiscus
rosa-sinensis
which is native to Africa and Asia. One of its more unusual local
names in India and something similar in Indonesia is the Shoeblack
plant as it is used by the street side shoe-shine boys in the
pursuance of their trade. I must try it on my next annual shoe
cleaning day. Meanwhile the taverna beckons and so I suppose we must
go and research these local wines. It's a tough job but somebody has
to do it.
The
Extra Bit
I
took those egg cases home but as I suspected no more shield bugs
emerged. It did however give me a chance to examine them under the
microscope and, as you can see, some of the bugs started to develop
but didn't quite make it.
Meanwhile Iris is still clinging on to the fennel by the gate despite some wet and windy weather and managed to catch a hoverfly in mid air last week.
[1] History of Wine in Crete (with thanks to Dill Childs via Flowers of Crete for correcting my earlier assertion that wine had been produced on Crete for a mere 2000 years).
Photographic
Bit
Many
of you have asked
me what
photographic equipment I use so here's a quick rundown on the cameras
used for each picture. For details of aperture settings, shutter
speeds etc. my pictures will be on Flickr
within
a few days and that has all the geeky stuff.
Picture
1 Nikon Coolpix S33
Insets Canon EOS 1300D
Picture
2 Nikon Coolpix S33
Insets Konica Minolta
Picture
3 Canon EOS 1300D, Konica Minolta
Insets
Picture
4 Canon EOS 1300D
Insets
Picture
5 Canon EOS 1300D
Insets
Extra
Bit pictures Brunel Light Microscope SP-20, Nikon Coolpix S33
Pictures
were edited with FastStone Image Viewer and combined with Microsoft
Paint.
*********************************************************************
LINKS:
Share
your nature thoughts, photos and comments on Naturalists (the
facebook page that accompanies this blog)
See
detailed pictures on Flickr
Read
more about the flora and flora of the island in The
Nature of Crete (Flipboard
Magazine)
Explore
the region with the #CreteNature interactive Hiking
and Nature Map
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