Aromatic Plants

Another important Cretan tradition. Ancient authors (e.g. Aristotle) record ed the following observation: a wild goat wounded by a hunter's arrow would try to find a certain plant, origanum dictamus L, the king of the endemic flora of Crete. As soon as the wild goat consumed this plant, the arrow would fall off the wound by itself! In antiquity dictamus was considered a form of panacea (cure-all natural medi cine).

Hippocrates, for example, recom mended dictamus that facilitated labour and delivery in pregnant women. Cretan pickerf of aromatic herbs offer a wide variety of products as oregano (orig anum onites), basil (ocimum basilicum). tilia cordata mill., marjo ram (origanum majorana), thyme (thy- mus sibthorpil benth.), mint (mentha), rosemary (rosmarius officinalis), bay (lau-rus nobilis ). camomile (matricana chamomilla ), sage (salvia officinalis), a.o.

All these herbs have been used as medicinal plants since antiquity and numer ous texts by ancient authors attribute to them excellent thera peutic properties, these Cretan herbs them dictamus) grow on steep slopes on the island and are usually gathered by experienced people.

Today these herbs are used for tea preparations and as a condiment; they can be found in most local markets and supermarkets. The herbs are dried under natural conditions and then packaged by modern packaging units without any form of chemical processing.

Flowers

What you will see,oviously, depends when and where you go.The best time is spring,which generally starts in mid February in the southeast corner of the island,is at its peak during March over most of the lowlands,and in the mountains comes later,starting in late April and going throught to June.In early summer,the spring anemones,orchides and rockroses are replace by plants like brooms and chrisanthemums.This ranges from mid-April in southern crete to late July in the high mountains.These timings vary from year to year,too,exeptionally by as much as a month-in early April 1996 it was to hot to lie to the beach at Yeorgioupoli at midday,but at the same time in 1997 there was snow on the beach at Rethimnon,just 30 km outside.

Things are pretty much burnt out over all the lowlands from July throught the end of September,througt there are still some flowers in the mountains.Once the hot summer is over,bluming starts all over again.Some of the autum flowering species,such as cyclamens and autum crocus,flower from October in the mountains into December in the south.And by then you might as well stay on for the first of spring bulbs in January.

Year rounds the best insuranse policy is to be prepaired to move up and down the hills until you find flowers-from the begining of March to the end of June you are almost guaranteed to find classic displays of flowers somewhere in the island,and you will see the less spectacular but still worthwhile displays of autum flowering species from October to early December.If you have to go in July,August or September, then be prepair to see a restricted range,and also to go high up the mountais.The four habitats all have their own flowers, though some, of course overlap.

On the coast you might find the spectaculare yellow horned poppy growing on shingled banks,and sea stocks and Virginia stocks growing amongstthe rocks behind the beach .A small pink camprion Silene colorata is often colourully present.Sand dunes are rare but sometimes there is a flat grazed area behind the beach; these are often good for orchids.Tamarisk trees often grow down to the shore, and there are frequent groves of Europe's largest grass, the giant reed, which can reach 4m high.In the autumn look for the very large white flowers of the sea daffodil as well as autumn crocuses on the banks behind the shore.The sea squill also blooms in autumn with very tall spikes of white flowers rising from huge bulbs.

On cultivated land avoid large fields and plantations, but look for small hay meadows.These are often brilliant with annual "weeds" in late spring - various crysanthemum species, wild gladiolus, blue and purple vetches and in general a mass of colour such as you rarely see in nothern Europe.This is partly because herbicides are used less, but mostly because the hot summers force plants into flowering at the same time.

The trees and shrubs on low hillsides are varied and beautiful, with colourful brooms flowering in early summer, preceded by bushy rockroses -Cistaceae- which are a mass of pink or white flowers in spring.Dotted amongst the shrubs is the occasional tree; the Judas tree flowers on bare wood in spring, making a blaze of pink against green hillsides which stands out for milles.Lower than the shrubs are the aromatic herbs -sage, rosemary, thyme, and lavender - with perhaps some spiny species of Euphorbia.My favorite of these is Euphorbia acanthothamnos, a rock-hugging species which forms low humps with small green leaves and delicate golden flowers.Because Crete is a dry and hot for much of the year, you also get a high proportion of xerofytes- plants that are adapted to drought by having fleshy leaves and thick skins.

Below the herbs is the ground layer; peer around the edges and between the shrubs and you'll find a wealth of orchids, anemones, grape hyacinths, irises, and perhaps fritillaries if you are lucky.The orchids are extraordinary; some kinds - the Ophrys species - have especially fascinating and unusual flowers.Each Ophrys species is pollinated by a particular insect, which they attract by sight and smell: sight by having a flower which imitates the female insect and so deludes the male into "mating" with it; smell by imitating the particular sex pheromone which the insect uses.They're much smaller and altogether more dignified than the big blowsy tropical orchids you see in florists' stores.But beware of orchids - they are addictive, and you can easily become an orchid freak and spend your entire holiday face down on hillside, to the extreme boredom of your non-botanical friends.

The irises are appealing, too; one of them, a small blue species called Iris sisyrinchium, only flowers in the afternoon, and you can actually sit and watc them open at around midday.Once spring is over, these plants give way to the early summer flowering of the brooms and aromatic herbs, as well as a final fling from the annuals which sense the coming of the heat and their own death.When the heat of the summer is over, the autumn bulbs appear, with species of crocus and their relatives, the colchicums and the strenbergias, and finally the autumn cyclamens through into early December.

Mountains are good to visit later in the year.The rocky mountain gorges are the home of many familiar garden rock plants, such as the aubretias, saxifrages and alyssums, as well as dwarf bellflowers and anemones.Look for dwarf tulips in fields on the upland plateux in spring.The mountains are also the place to see the remaining Greek native pine forests, and in the woodland glades you will find gentians, cyclamens and violets.Above 1500m or so the forest begin to thin out, and in this upland meadows glorious crcuses flower almost before the snow has melted in spring - a very fine form of crcus seiberi is a particularly early one.Autumn flowering species of crocus and cyclamen should reward a visit later in the year.