The Garrigue biome of the Mediterranean is a result of thousands of years of human activity. Between overgrazing, erosion and wood harvest all that remains is a community of the very hardy. Here you'll find poor rocky soil, long hot summer drought, salt spray, harsh winter winds and lots of goats. If you are a plant and want to live here you better have spines, be unpalatable or have great chemistry.
It is good to have spines here even if most of you is dead.
Many of the world's great aromatic plants come from here. This is wild Rosemary in bloom.
Plenty of spurges with caustic latex here too, and that is a nice fragrant fine toothed lavender around the spurge.
Looking down. Can you tell which way it is to the sea from here?
Here is a bloomin` onion. It found the best way to live here is under a rock.
Move up and away from the sea a bit and you find yourself in a pine-oak woodland, very similar to Chaparral, except with more goats.
Here is Jonathan in what I think is a sumac, so it is also probably toxic.
There is one more strategy that seems to work here: being very small and very sexy. With eyes honed from years of orchid seeking around Jena, Jonathan spotted both of these beauties.
They are both small almost leafless bee mimics. Male bees see these hotties and can't resist trying to copulate, but only get hit in the head with pollen for their effort. The flowers have to be so sexy that the bees fall for the charade at least twice to make a pollen transfer. They look pretty sexy to me, too.
Being on the Mediterranean in spring was a perfect break for this plant geek!
It is good to have spines here even if most of you is dead.
Many of the world's great aromatic plants come from here. This is wild Rosemary in bloom.
Plenty of spurges with caustic latex here too, and that is a nice fragrant fine toothed lavender around the spurge.
Looking down. Can you tell which way it is to the sea from here?
Here is a bloomin` onion. It found the best way to live here is under a rock.
Move up and away from the sea a bit and you find yourself in a pine-oak woodland, very similar to Chaparral, except with more goats.
Here is Jonathan in what I think is a sumac, so it is also probably toxic.
There is one more strategy that seems to work here: being very small and very sexy. With eyes honed from years of orchid seeking around Jena, Jonathan spotted both of these beauties.
They are both small almost leafless bee mimics. Male bees see these hotties and can't resist trying to copulate, but only get hit in the head with pollen for their effort. The flowers have to be so sexy that the bees fall for the charade at least twice to make a pollen transfer. They look pretty sexy to me, too.Being on the Mediterranean in spring was a perfect break for this plant geek!
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