Olive and fruit
It is impossible to imagine Mediterranean landscape without olive trees. The olives are the main tree cultivated in the Mediterranean region. In the Northern Sporades will see wild and cultivated olive in Makios near residential areas. Besides the blessed fruit of their valuable oil, olives and provide firewood for the winter. Besides their blessed fruit and the valuable oil, olives provide firewood for the winter. The olive tree is greatly adapted to dry summers but it can not stand the cold. It only thrives in Mediterranean climates, so that its presence is an indicator for the climate of the region.
In the inhabited islands of the Northern Sporades, the gardens and the fields are concentrated around the villages, or at terraces that are formatted with the famous drystones, as you will see in Alonissos or at plains, as the one of Stafilos in Skopelos. Vines and vegetables are mainly cultivated. There are also lemon trees, orange trees, fig trees, chestnuts, almonds, plums, berries, cherry and rhodium, either as individual trees or plantations, giving diversity to the landscape of the islands.
In late April to early May, the soil in olive groves and in the orchards becomes transformed into a real sea of wildflowers. Thousands of poppies
(Papaver rhoeas) like red touches on the infrecently seeded soil, are being mixed with the bright yellow of the Daisies (Chrysanthemum Coronarium) creating a riot of colors. Many representatives of the genus Ierakion (Hieracium spec.) and Krepis (Crepis spec) grow here. Here you will see the filiform fruits of the genus Tragopogon (Tragopogon spec).
Colorful flowers in the street curbs.
The beauty of a place cannot be found only in rare things, but in ordinary, simple things too. Walking on the islands, we pass through from gardens and orchards, fallow fields and heaths, climbing the stone walls, and the nature impress us once again with the variety and beauty. In places like the abandoned fields and road curbs we can see species of plants from very different habitats, creating a new composition with its multifaceted character. A typical plant that can be found at the edges of roads are wild malva ( Malva sylvestris) With the purple flowers. Along with the flowers of yellow daisies ( Chrysanthemum_coronarium) And tsitsimpolas (Chrysanthemum segetum ), they make a paradise for thousands of flying insects that visit it frequently for refueling. Another plant that grows in places that there are piles of stones at the base of a stone or a scrub margin, is the prickly Akanthos (Acanthus spinosus), Commonly moutrouna, the sophisticated shape of this plant was a model in the ancient times for the making of columns. In such places we can often see the karfochorto ( Pallenis spinosa) The pikrangouria (Ecballium elaterium) Daffodil yellow ( Asphodeline lutea ), The sperdoukli ( Asphodelus aestivus), The fassochorto ( Prasium majus), The agriagkatho (Notobasis syriaca) And different irises (Iris spec).
In walls or piles of stones you will see the apigano as known as routa or the varyosmos (Ruta graveolens), a plant that reaches up to half a meter in height and its leaves, when rubbed, emit a strong, very special smell. In the older times they were using the leaves as an additional material in the manufacture of wine, or as seasoning but also for their curative properties.Also, lychnaraki louminia (Ballota acetabulosa).
often grows on the walls.
One would expect that places like the road curbs and the abandoned fields are monotonous and dead from life, but ultimately they aren’t. If you go through here in spring or early summer you will see the "wilds" to be converted into a garden of wildflowers: the voidoglossa (Echium plantagineum), the Anchusa azurea, the asprothymaro (Phagnalon graecum), species of the genus mullein (Verbascum spec), toPhagnalon rupestre. The names may not tell you much, but the spectacle will compensate. And the composition is never the same. Sometimes the place smells of ladanies with their purple flowers, in other cases, its the earring (Briza maxima) or lagochorto (Tragopogon porrifolius) whom give to the landscape its uniqueness.
Each part is different, so as you proceed, you will discover the wealth of shapes and colors of this small world of plants s living in the street curbs and edges. Solvable ecological treasure of roads and footpaths will be your chum to walk until you reach the next village, and so is everywhere in the Northern Sporades (except Country of Skiathos and the Great Hotels with the lawn areas). You may also find the ruins of an abandoned house whitch blend that wild and romantic landscape. And the ruins have their own special people, here grows a kind of nettle, the ourtika the sfairidioforos (Urtica pilulifera), with a height of 30 centimeters to one meter, which, like the common nettle, is an indicator of soil nitrate, and nettle genus Perdikouli (Parietaria spec), which thrive on walls, rocks and between stones. Another plant you'll see often planted in gardens and squares and wild among the ruins, are the spark plugs. The most common type of spark plugs (Carpobrotus edulis) anthakia makes red and comes from southern Africa, but has now spread from humans to almost all the Mediterranean.
Bibliography
Northern Sporades - National Marine Park (Gerald Hau-Claus Peter Hutter)
|
Ανοιξε το γραφείο του ΝΟΑ στο Πατητήρι για τα μέλη του και πληροφορίες για το κοινό. 
