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Re: Crete

Julius & Beverly Elischer wrote:
> 
> Nick Turland wrote:
> >
> > > For me the highlight was seeing the anemones on the Omalos plateau. I saw
> > > smaller A hortensis (?) various shades of pink and blue.
> >
> > In Crete, the large flowered anemone with five rounded 'petals' is
> > Anemone coronaria (with red, blue, amethyst, or white flowers); the small
> > flowered one with several oblong-rounded petals is Anemone hortensis
> > subsp. heldreichii (usually bluish white, occasionally pink). There's
> > also Ranunculus asiaticus, the turban buttercup, which looks like an
> > anemone but on closer inspection clearly has five sepals behind the five
> > petals; Amenone has none, just a ruff of bracts on the stalk an inch or
> > so below the flower. R. asiaticus comes mostly in white or pale pink in
> > Crete, though there are bright yellow and very rarely stunning blood red
> > forms.
> >
> > > There was still qite a bit of snow about so I think the tuips were a bit
> > > late as I walked across some of the fields I saw loads of emergent
> > > leaves especially of ones with a very undulating leaf margins.
> >
> > The bulbs with undulate leaf margins are most probably a grape hyacinth
> > species related to the edible one Bob mentioned. This one has the
> > spectacular name of Muscari spreitzenhoferi. Try saying that after a
> > bottle of retsina. Or even before. The tulips (T. saxatilis, T. 'bakeri')
> > have straight leaves and are common on the Omalos plain, so you probably
> > saw them too. The 'spuds' you saw being dug up could have been either
> > Muscari comosum or M. spreitzenhoferi.
> >
> > The Cretans are keen on wild vegetables and not only collect grape
> > hyacinth bulbs but also dandelions (Taraxacum minimum), a species of
> > spiny, dwarf-shrubby chicory called 'stamnagathia' in Greek (Cichorium
> > spinosum), several species of lettuce-like plants in the daisy family,
> > e.g. sowthistles (Sonchus oleraceus), the young shoots of wild asparagus
> > (Asparagus aphyllus) and black bryony (Tamus communis, yam family), a dock
> > (Rumex tuberosus), the just-opened flowers of  various mustard relatives,
> > an endemic bellflower relative called Cretan rock-lettuce (Petromarula
> > pinnata), and even the unlikely sounding (i.e. not obviously edible)
> > black nightshade (Solanum nigrum). I once fished this last one out of a
> > rustic salad I was given; not sure if it was intentionally included...
> >
> > Nick.
> 
> Nick, Solanum nigrum has a terrible reputation in Australia, seemingly
> from being confused with the Belladonna nightshade. However I met
> someone who went out and gathered the berries for jam. This group had a
> discussion awhile ago and the consensus seemed to be that the berries
> are not poisonous if thoroughly ripe.
> 
> Beverly
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