Life In The Uplands

That nice little mountain road that we found last week soon petered out into a dirt track but what the heck, we’ll see more by cutting across country anyway. Now that autumn is getting underway and there’s a bit more moisture about a few more flowers are starting to appear. They’re usually small up here remember so keep your eyes peeled and look in the nooks and crannies of the rocks.

Autumn Flowers of the Uplands

We seem to have a nice little collection: firstly the shade loving Friar’s Cowl, Arisarum vulgare; some Spiny Restharrow, Ononis spinosa,in a damp hollow; a type of Dandelion with inward rolling florets, Taraxacum bithynicum; a stemless Thistle keeping out of the wind, Carlina gummifera; and a beautiful little crocus-like flower called Sternbergia greuteriana which is a bit of a rarity that requires a CITES permit to export so we won’t tell everyone exactly where we found it or those insidious bulb collectors will be up here with their trowels.

The two faces of Euphorbia dimorphocaulon

Now how did you miss this little beauty? Because it looks green and boring and hasn’t got any flowers. Not so my friend, this little lady is Euphorbia dimorphocaulon. I know I said that the little brown job we found last week was called that but they’re the same plant. He was male. The clue is in the ‘dimorph’ part of the name which means two shapes. Although most plants are hermaphrodite (both male and female) about six percent, including this one, are dioecious,  having distinct male and female types. This is just one of the ruses that plants use to get the most out of their pollinators.

The robust cerci of the Calliptamus grasshopper

Take a look at this little fellow a second. When I first picked him up I thought his rear end was being attacked by a louse or something. Not an unreasonable supposition seeing as how something has already had one of his back legs but it is actually a part of the grasshopper called the cerci, pincer like attachments like those you see on earwigs. This particular grasshopper belongs to the Calliptamus genus (either C. italicus or C. barbarus – you have to examine his penis in minute detail to tell them apart and I think that he’s suffered enough indignities for one day) and they are noted for their robust cerci. They are primarily sensory organs although they may be used to assist copulation as well. I’ll put him back, I expect he’s beginning to wish he hadn’t bothered getting up this morning.

Bees, Butterflies and Hornets on Ivy

I make no apologies for banging on about Ivy again this week. I mean, just look, have you ever seen such an effusive expanse of flowers? A couple of weeks back (see Where Mary Sleeps ) I said how useful this plant was at this time of year to insects and now you can see the evidence with your own eyes. It’s absolutely buzzing with Honey Bees, Apis melifera, and Oriental Hornets, Vespa orientalis and also a goodly number of Painted Lady butterflies, Vanessa cardui, which have been particularly prolific in Crete this year.

Church of the Holy Cross with Scorpion

Well, here we are at the Church of the Holy Cross, thus dedicated to many churches at high locations in remembrance of the Universal Elevation of the cross. This is the most sacred symbol of the Orthodox Church, as it guards the entire universe. Remember to take your headgear off when you get inside and not before. This is not a religious ritual as such but in these remote churches you never know who you might dislodge as you open the door. That Scorpion for instance, Euscorpia sp. is much better appreciated having bounced off my hat and onto the floor rather than blundering about in what's left of my hair. The venom in that stinger may not be fatal but I’m assured that it packs one heck of a punch. We've got a big climb ahead of us next week so if you fancy saying a quick prayer for fortitude now is your chance. 

Until next week then.

The Extra Bit

I’m not usually given to taking selfies but I seem to have photo bombed myself  whilst taking this picture of the interior of the church. If you look at the right hand panel of the Templon (the screen dividing the sanctuary from the nave) you can clearly see me reflected in the glass. Does this mean that I am now an icon?

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Contrary to popular opinion this blog is not just thrown together but is actually researched. I’d particularly like to thank Ralf Jahn at Cretan Flora for species identification of the flowers this week as well as Josip Skejo and Ammar Azil at The Orthoptera Group for details regarding the cerci of the Calliptamus genus of Grasshoppers.

LINKS:

Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

See detailed pictures at http://www.inaturalist.org/login  (search - people-stevedaniels-observations)

Cretan Flora

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths

Aquaworld Aquarium

Visit Greece (National Government Tourist Office)

The End of Civilisation

Blue-winged Grasshopper, Oedipoda caerulescens

Here we are, back at the point where we regained the trail last week, and it looks as though we have a fairly easy stroll ahead of us today. I see that we have some grasshoppers for company. These are blue winged grasshoppers as you can see by the flash of their hind wings as they fly but watch as they land. Notice the way that they immediately turn to face the way they came? Both the red and blue winged grasshoppers do this and I think that the reason may be a classic case of misdirection as used by stage magicians throughout the centuries. The magician stands before you with an object in hand, closes and opens his fist and Hey Presto! The object has disappeared. He has, of course, thrown it over your head but as your attention is drawn towards him by his patter you fail to notice. Now the bright flash of the grasshopper wing is very followable with the eye and even though the camouflage of the grasshopper at rest makes it difficult to spot when it lands, a succession of jumps in roughly the same direction would make it easy for a predator to follow, predict and finally capture the insect. If, on the other hand, the grasshopper turns on landing and then jumps back over the predators head then there would be a flash of wing and Hey presto! No grasshopper. I’ve always thought they were rather magical creatures.

Sticky Fleabane, Dittrichia

Those of you with keen nostrils may have noticed a somewhat unpleasant smell pervading the locality. The culprit is this yellow flowered plant here called Sticky Fleabane amongst other names. The smell is due to a volatile oil that it produces and in North Africa they boil the branches in cooking oil and use it to treat sun stroke. Elsewhere various concoctions have been produced to counter everything from hangovers to malaria. 

Despite the smell, or possibly because of it, the Small White and Painted Lady butterflies seem to love it as do the Honey Bees and Hover Flies. The Hornets and the Blue Butterflies seem to prefer the Ivy just coming into flower over there.

Pomegranate with Orange, Tangerine and Lemon inset

Choices, choices. It seems that the main track crosses the stream bed at this point and leads up out of the valley but there appears to be an alternative path through this citrus grove. The reason we’ve been confined to either the track or the stream bed thus far on our travels is that this lower part of the valley is quite intensively farmed and most of the small plots have been fenced off which is unusual in these parts. This one however seems to allow us access (keep your paws off the fruit – I saw you) and what a beautiful display of oranges, tangerines, lemons and a magnificent pomegranate (not a citrus fruit incidentally but more closely related to the Myrtle which we were looking at last week). Even to my nose it smells a lot pleasanter here than by that sticky fleabane and those ripening citrus fruits means that marmalade making time is nearly upon us once again. I preserve mine with Metaxa brandy – delicious on crisply buttered toast with a cup of Lapsang Souchong on a cold winter’s day.

Darkling Beetle, Tenebrionidae

Interesting though orchards are I feel sure that more excitement awaits us further up the valley and it would appear that we have now reached the end of civilisation. The valley is narrowing into a ravine and the pomegranate was the last of the fruit trees. There is a face in the rocks up there that doesn’t look at all welcoming and the rocks are guarded by sinister Darkling Beetles. I think that we’re about to enter Indiana Jones territory – keep your bullwhip handy. Darkling Beetles, by the way, are one of the largest of the beetle families with an estimated twenty thousand species. They don’t look very friendly but they’re perfectly harmless and won’t nip you if you handle them gently.

Cup Fungi, Resupinatus

I’ve found a little stone aqueduct that will serve as a crossing to the other bank where I believe we’ll make more progress. Watch your step as there’s a cunningly placed rock in the centre ready to hurtle you to your doom below. Safely over? Good. Give me a hand with this rotting log and let’s see what we can find underneath. What  a beautiful expanse of cup fungi. These are saprotrophic (meaning that they feed upon dead matter) and they secrete digestive enzymes directly into the wood in order to do so. Their spores are formed on the surface of the cups so they feed from the bottom and reproduce from the top as it were. I think that they’re rather attractive although other members of the family are more colourful. We’ll cover them up again as I daresay that they’re somebody’s larder.

There isn’t an obvious path from here on in so we’ll leave it for this week and come back with stout walking gear next week. Until then – happy hunting.

See all the pictures including insets in detail on Flickr

 

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LINKS:

Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

Cretan Flora

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths

Aquaworld Aquarium

Visit Greece (National Government Tourist Office)