Marion reports:
I’ve been inspired this spring to get outside and learn more about Hvar’s plantlife. I see local folks using flowers and leaves in drinks, in cooking, as insect repellants, balms and of course to flavour various rakijas! At the same time, we’ve also been watching a wonderful Croatian TV series called Lovac na bilje, which is to say, The Plant Hunter. Each week, we watched Anton Rudan hike through glorious countryside, chatting to local experts and telling us about some of the special plants there and how they can be used. Fascinating stuff!
The sun colours flowers and art colours life!
So for the last few weeks I’ve been diligently taking photos of as many flowers as I could find among the paths and byways, sometimes in fields or by the beach. And as part of my explorations, I’ve even had a go at painting some of them! My next step, of course, is to identify each one, and tag my photos with an official name in Latin, English and Croatian. As you’d expect, I’m finding that it’s easy enough to take photos, but much harder to track down the names!!
Unidentified pink flowers at Asseria - subsequently identified as blue lettuce (Lactuca perennis, modra salata)
To start with, I’d photograph the flowers with a narrow depth of field, so the flower is sharply in focus, but the surrounding is nicely blurred. It really does make the flowers stand out beautifully. However… that essentially gives me no information at all about the rest of the plant which could have been really useful!
How to identify? No visible leaves!
To help ID the flowers, I have a couple of books of plants of the Adriatic coast and islands (in Croatian), plus two iPad apps on wildflowers of Europe/UK, and online resources such as Wikipedia and Plantea.hr. What I’m learning, of course, is the infinite variety of plantlife, and the fact that the ones I’ve photographed don’t always look like the standard references! For example – a flower might be listed under a different colour, or be a radically different shape from that shown, as with this delicate candelabra which turns out to be a variant of a grape hyacinth!
Tassel hyacinth
It’s been a surprise to me how many of these wildflowers, that are basically scattered everywhere, turn out to have very familiar names – chicory, salsify, vetch, sage, borage, mallow, campion, sorrel, pyrethrum, and so on. Native Mediterranean plants, but long ago introduced further north for their medicinal and culinary properties. Now I know chicory root has been used as a coffee substitute for years, but I had no idea that it has such a lovely blue flower!
So here’s my reference table of the flowers, at least the ones I’ve identified so far. Disclaimer… while I have a reasonable confidence in most of the names for these plants, some are tentative and I’d be happy to hear from anyone who has a rather better grounding in botany! Click on the images for a bigger picture, and links go to wikipedia or plantea to find out more.
 Allium roseum Rosy garlic Ružičasti luk White and pink versions exist. The pink flowers are a tasty garnish for salads.
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 Analgallis arvensis Blue pimpernel Poljska Krivičica |
 Anchusa arvenensis / officinalis Bugloss Volujak? Could not find an exact match for the hairy red buds, but appears to be a type of bugloss.
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 Anthyllis vulneraria L. subsp praepropera Pink kidney vetch / woundwort Ranjenik More usually yellow? Any plant with -wort as its English name indicates medicinal use.
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 Antirrhinum majus Snapdragon Zijevalica |
 Arum italicum Italian lords-and-ladies Veliki kozlac Photographed in a Kastela vineyard
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 Bituminaria bitumenosa Arabian pea or pitch trefoil Djeteljnjak |
 Borage officinalis Borage or starflower Boražina |
 Calendula arvensis Field marigold Neven (calendula officinalis) Pretty green beetle in the flower!
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 Carduus pycnocephalus Italian (plumeless) thistle Sitnoglavičasti stričak |
 Cichorium intybus Chicory Cikorija Root is used in cooking and as substitute for coffee.
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Two varieties – pretty in pink and in white.
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 Colutea arborescens Bladdernut tree or bladder senna Drvolika pucalina More a shrub than a tree
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 Convolvulus althaeoides Mallow bindweed Finodlakavi slak |
 Cynoglossum creticum Blue hound’s tongue Grčki pasji jazik |
 Diplotaxis tenuifolia Perennial wall-rocket Uskolisni dvoredac |
 Dorycnium hirsutium (Hairy) canary clover Čupava bjeloglavica Love the name!
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 Euphorbia characias Mediterranean spurge Velika mlječika |
 Euphorbia helioscopia Spurge Mlječika suncogled |
 Fuminaria officinalisFumitory Dimnjača |
 Glebionis coronaria Crown daisy Croatian name unknown |
 Helianthemum nummularium Common rock-rose Sunčanica |
 Hippocrepus comosa Horseshoe vetch Croatian not known |
 Leopoldia comosa or Muscari comosum Tassel hyacinth Kitnjasta presličica Two versions on the latin name. Related to grape hyacinth.
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 Lonicera implexa Aiton / caprifolium Honeysuckle Orlovi Nokti |
 Lotus corniculatus Bird’s Foot Trefoil Svinđuša |
 Malva sylvestris Mallow Crni sljez Photographed in Split
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 Melilotus officinalis Yellow sweet clover Žuti kokotac |
 Nigella damascena Love-in-a-mist Crnjika Native to the Mediterranean, was already known in English cottage gardens in Tudor times.
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 Oxalis articulata Pink sorrel Cecelj Native to S. America! Now widespread in Europe
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 Papaver argemone Prickly poppy Mak Unusual, very tiny poppy seen in the hills.
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 Papaver rhoeas Poppy Divlji mak Common poppy, seen everywhere!
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 Pisum sativum Pea Grašak |
 Punica granatum Pomegranate Nar |
 Salvia officinalis Sage Kadulja Makes a lovely cordial drink
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 Scrophularia nodosa Figwort Čvorasti /Uskolisni strupnik |
 Sideritis romana Ironwort Sredozemni očist |
 Silene latifolia White campion Pušina |
 Silene vulgaris Bladder campion Pušina |
 Sonchus asper Prickly sow-thistle Oštri kostriš |
 Spartium junceum Spanish broom Brnistra |
 Tanacetum cinerariifolium Pyrethrum Buhač |
 Tordylium apulium Mediterranean hartwort Apulijska orja šica |
 Tragopogon porrifolius Purple or common salsify Lukasta kozja brada |
 Trifolium Clover Djetelina |
 Vicia villosa Roth Hairy vetch Vlasastodlakava grahorica |
“Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness. It trains the mind through the eye, and the eye through the mind. As the sun colours flowers, so does art colour life.”
~ John Lubbock (1834-1913) The Pleasures of Life
© Marion Podolski
This article has been reproduced with kind permission from Marion's blog Go Hvar, Ramblings about a far island. Visit the blog for all kinds of information about Hvar, from artistic to epicurean!
Many thanks to Norman Woolons of Dol for identifying the pink flower from a match in his orchard.
