A Recipe For Life

We seem to have taken quite a detour last week to get down to this level and the waterfall should be over there somewhere. We’ll follow our ears and get there somehow but first, that looks interesting. There’s probably a correct technical term for these shallow erosions but I just call them cavelets. Let’s climb up and take a look. As you can see from the staining of the rock face, water is leaching minerals from the rocks and if you look up there you can see small stalactites forming. There are also white deposits blooming on the walls which my geologist friends tell me is probably gypsum/selenite.  They contain calcium and sulphur so, along with the limestone rocks which contain calcium and carbon, and the water, we have carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen (the basic elements of life) plus at least a couple of others to add to the recipe. We’ll push our way up through these bushes using this tumbling water course as our stairs and see what’s going on.

And up here, below the dripping stalactite, if you look carefully you can just see some threads of green algae forming. There’s a whole world of wonder in this little splash pool which began when large molecules of dissolved organic substances from the stalactite attached themselves to the wet rock. These neutralised the electrical charge of the water surface and allowed bacteria to colonise and they, in turn, secreted sticky strands that formed a nutrient trapping matrix. This matrix, known as the biofilm to periphytologists (people who study slimy rocks – yes, there really are such people), then served as a base for more bacteria to expand and diversify the biofilm and then for our green algae to grow. The algae, in its turn, will provide a home for microscopic life forms such as the ciliate we found in Life In The Olive Grove .

Algae are very basic life forms but we also have some higher forms of plant life up here. These fig branches, tenaciously clinging to the underside of this crack are just coming into bud and down in the damp crevices we have some lip ferns whilst out on the dry, stony ground, the beautiful but dangerous mandrakes are coming into flower. Their relative simplicity or complexity is reflected in their evolution: the flowering plants which include the fig and mandrake have been with us for about 120 million years, the ferns about 320 million years and the green algae maybe as long as 500 million years. Us? Well, as primates about 55 million years but as Homo sapiens only a couple of hundred thousand years.

Have you noticed these cottony threads in amongst the berries of this lentisc bush here? Alongside the evolution of plants came the evolution of insects and these threads look like the work of woolly aphids. Pass me the field microscope and I’ll see if I can find one for you. There’s one look, if you study him closely you can see him sucking up the sap from the plant. And where there are insects there are predators; there’s a minute spider that has his eye on stuffed aphid for lunch. Talking of which, let’s see if we can find some cave spiders lurking in the deeper recesses.

Do you think that you can wedge yourself up into that crack and see if there’s anyone about? Plenty of webs? That’s a good sign. You’ve found one? Good, I’ll squeeze in beside you and take a look. Hmm. It’s not a cave spider but he is rather interesting. Do you remember me telling you that you don’t have to worry about spiders in Crete because we only have one venomous one and you’re unlikely to come across it? Guess what? You’ve found one. Sorry, probably not the best time to impart that information when you’re perched precariously thirty metres up a cliff face, but don’t worry they’re pretty shy creatures and he won’t bother you unless you threaten him. All the same I think we’ll climb down. That was a Mediterranean Recluse Spider and although his bite can cause nasty skin lesions, a condition known as loxoscelism for which there’s no known treatment, it is rarely fatal. Having said that, there was a fatality last year in Italy but I believe that the unfortunate victim was already suffering from some sort of immune deficiency, which would have been a contributing factor.

Still, venomous spiders aside, a pleasant little diversion and a different angle from which to look at this wonderful thing called life. Now how are we going to get down from here?

The Extra Bit

Last week I glibly said that there is “only one authentic palm lined beach on the whole continent [of Europe]” and that was at Vai on the east coast of Crete. I am indebted to Jackie Strasis for reminding me that Phoenix theophrasti also lines Preveli Beach in southern Crete and I have also learnt that there are yet more at Ayios Nikitas in Heraklion Prefecture. Further research has turned up one other native European palm, The Mediterranean Dwarf palm, Chamaerops humilis, which lives in south west Europe. Just goes to show – you can’t believe a word that I say. Thanks for correcting me Jackie.

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LINKS:

Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

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

The Nature of Crete  (Flipboard Magazine)

Cretan Flora

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths

Aquaworld Aquarium

Visit Greece (National Government Tourist Office)

An Awakening World

Cumulus clouds over the sea

I love the Autumn in Crete: it arrives after the first rains like a second Spring, as though the earth has been held back, tense and waiting for the life giving water from the sky. Those reviving droplets arrived down here on the 17^th of the month, just a few of them and one day later than last year, but at the weekend we had a full 17mm and already Peristeras Common is wearing a faint cloak of green. There is a hint of magic in the air as cumulus clouds hang over the sea. Let’s take a little walk up into the hills and see what we can find.

Turnsole with Crimson-speckled moth and caterpillar

Now this is an interesting little plant. It’s the European Heliotrope or Turnsole (both words mean turning to the sun). It’s a poisonous little beastie, to grazing animals at least, as it contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids. A horse that compulsively walks may have eaten this but locally it is the preferred nursery for the beautiful Crimson-speckled moth who’s caterpillars should be appearing next month. Here the leaves are playing host to a rust fungus, Uromyces heliotrope I think, which accounts for the little yellow pock marks. Once again we see three kingdoms in one location: plant, animal and fungus. Fascinating how everything works together.

Red-winged Grasshopper

Blue-winged Grasshopper

We’ll continue on up to the patch of disturbed ground which I first introduced you to back in January in the blog entitled When Nature Fights Back. The clumps of tussock grass are still summer browned but the greens are beginning to show through, the narrow-leaved Asters are chest high and the Tamarisk trees have built an almost impenetrable wall across the centre. You’ll notice as we scuff our way through the grass little flashes of orange or blue suddenly popping off like little fireworks.  These are grasshoppers, specifically the somewhat obviously named Red-winged and Blue-winged.  As you can see they are superbly camouflaged against the arid brown soil when they are at rest and only give themselves away when they move and show their brightly coloured hindwings. 

Carob with pod, seeds and leaves plus figs for comparison

Now you know me by now, I’m never one to pass up free food so I’m going to introduce to a the tree that you always dreamt of as a child: the one that gave scrummy chocolates rather than boring old fruit but on the way I see that the figs are ripening so I’ll just have a few of those. Anyone know a recipe for fig and chocolate pudding? Ah, here we are, the chocolate tree.  Actually it is a carob tree and the seeds can be used as a chocolate substitute. Here in Crete they make a carob syrup which is used as a natural sweetener. The scientific name of the tree is Ceratonia siliqua and I mention this because the first part of the name (the generic name) is the most probable origin of the word “carat” as in the 105 carat Koh-i-Noor diamond. One carob seed equals one carat and carob seeds (or keratonia in Greek) were traditionally used as a measure for gemstones in the Middle East. The Romans took it one stage further creating a solid gold coin called a solidus which weighed 24 carob seeds and 24 carat gold is still the standard for purity to this day.

Sardinian Warbler

You know, I was just thinking how few birds we’ve seen this morning and here, sitting up bright and alert on this Lentisc bush is one of my favourite residents.  This is the Sardinian Warbler and I often see a pair of them flitting around in the garden. They like to perch on the fence and take small flying insects that are attracted to the fennel plants that grow alongside after which, for dessert as it were, they pop into my pomegranate tree and take the seeds from any of the fruit that have split open. Wonderful little birds with a call like a machine gun. Still, you can’t have everything I suppose. Until next week then – happy hunting. I’m off to enjoy my figs.

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LINKS:

Naturalists (the facebook page that accompanies this blog)

Flowers of Crete;

BIRDS OF CRETE

Crete Birding

Greek Butterflies and Moths

AquaworldAquarium

Visit Greece (National Government Tourist Office)