Through other eyes

Last week in Florina (Western Greece) there was a conference about the local flora of Greece. According to professor Constantinos Papanikolaou Greece has at least 400 varieties of herbs that are used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. According to the professor it would be very profitable to cultivate these herbs. Greek farmers don't grow enough of them because they usually only grow traditional crops. They stick to growing tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes and watermelons and their sheep and goats. If you give a farmer some seeds to grow Brussels sprouts, they thank you profusely, but we've never seen a single Brussels sprout growing. There's a Dutch saying: what a farmer doesn't know, he doesn't eat. In Greece he doesn't grow it either.

Greece once used to be a centre of revolutionary thinking, which led to great knowledge. The father of modern medical thinking, Hippocrates, was born around 460 BC on the island of Kos (just above Rhodes). There he taught that illness is not a punishment by the Gods, but the result of an unbalanced body. Through exercise and diet the body can regain its balance.

The foundation of botanical knowledge comes from the Greek philosopher (and first botanist) Theophrastus, who was born around 372 on the island of Lesvos. Along with others, he wrote about peoples characters, about stones and natural phenomena. But his books about plants, ('De causis plantarum' and 'De historia plantarum'), are seen as his most important works.

Lesvos, as the birthplace of the Father of botany, still honours this fact by being a green island. In Greece there are about 6000 varieties of plants, on Lesvos there are still some 1450-1500. This makes Lesvos the second richest island of Greece for flowers (after Crete).

Elder Lesvorians especially, know what grows in their environment. Only a few decades ago there was great poverty on the island and the poor had to find their food in the wild. Many an old Greek still remembers how they gathered wild vegetables and mushrooms on their way to work in the olive harvest.

Today wild vegetables (chorta) are still on the menu of many a restaurant. Not because people are still so poor, but because they wholeheartedly believe in the medical benefits of wild vegetables. I'm not sure what plants are good for what, but the old Greeks know what to use to deal with stomach pains, headaches or kidney problems.

Even though the old people know a lot about wild vegetables, the lore on wild vegetables and other flowers will soon perish, because the younger generation only goes to the supermarket. All plants have their special qualities. Do you know for example that the roots of hollyhocks used to be used to make marshmallows, that the seeds of lupins work like a drug that in ancient times people took to communicate with the dead, or that a tea made from oregano is good for a cough, asthma or nervous headaches?

The young Greeks and the tourists (except for the botanists off course) don't even know what plants they see. Do you know what a Prickly Asparagus looks like, or the Caper Plant, the Wild Root, a Shaggy Cistus or a Common Mallow?

Jan van Lent, photographer and moviemaker from Holland, has now lived for some years on Lesvos and through his photography he became fascinated by the flowers here on the island and what these plants can mean for our health. He runs an excursion, only in Dutch, and has now published a booklet about the flowers that can be found on this excursion: 'Through other eyes' (met andere ogen). I am sorry, but again: only in Dutch. (When the book is a success next year a German and English translation will follow).

In a booklet that slips easily into your pocket, with breathtaking pictures, he describes 27 plants with short passages about their history and their culinary and medicinal powers. Not only for people who want to know what a Squirting Cucumber looks like, how the Chaste Tree got its name, what can save you when you are bitten by a snake or when you want to lose weight, but also for people who want to know more about figs, olives or capers.

What this booklet doesn't tell you is the secret of the high quality of the olive oil from Lesvos. Recently the olive oil of Andriotellis from Plomari was awarded first prize from the German culinary magazine 'Der feinschmecker'. Ou of 800 different olive oils they choose the best 250, the one from Plomari was chosen as the best.

And also not mentioned in the booklet is that the best cook in the north of Lesvos, Angelo from restaurant Anatoli in Eftalou, will be cooking this summer in the new restaurant Filoxenia in Molyvos, just next to the town hall.

Copyright © Smitaki 2008

Rivers of flowers

It took some time, but finally the summer has set in. I swam for the first time this year (I am not that big a hero that I swim the whole year round) and the open fire place can be cleaned to make space for the television, which is a poor replacement for the orange flames I like to stare at.

The fine warm weather means also that the flowers growing at this time of the year on the island will soon disappear. Not long ago I wrote about the Keukenhof (A famous flower park attraction in Holland). The travelling Keukenhof this spring was abundant on Lesvos, but it was not always easy to reach it.


I already published a picture of the tulips that Jan found on the island. I myself was not able to see them, because Jan saw them during tough mountain walks for which I stay at home. Just going up and down Lepetimnos (968 m) and a day later up and down Olympos (967 m). I do like walking, but I am afraid that my legs will not hold on such tough walks. And so I was punished by not seeing the tulips live. Next winter I will take on long hours of training so that next spring I will walk as lightly as a bird up and down the mountains. I have to make some efforts to see the tulips.


Other near mythical flowers which were not easy to reach are the rare yellow rhododendrons. These are flowering at the end of April, beginning of May in the mountains between Anemotia and Pterounda. And these masses of flowers are only to be visited by a tough walk or by jeep. Yes, you read correctly: masses of flowers. Although that description does not quite do the job. In that dark pine forest where the only sound you hear comes from the birds and where the sun paints a nearly black and white landscape, rivers of bright yellow rhododendrons crawl downwards through the folds of the mountains. They are waterfalls of lightning flowers which take care to perfume the whole area with a wonderful sweet smell.


I assure you that seeing this piece of art from nature will keep you quiet for a moment. I saw this wonder myself. The walk going through this area I already made twice, finishing on four legs because I was so tired. But the flowering rhododendrons I visited this time by jeep. Which was as tiring as walking because the road there was no piece of cake at all.


Yeah, nature does not come that easily. So now we have seen the whole range of Dutch spring bulbs on this island: daffodils, snow drops, crocus, fritillaria and tulips. Those headstrong tulips which in Amsterdam used to nearly grow out of my vases are my favourites. Here they are protected, so I have to fill my vases with other flowers like broom, lupins, cornflowers and the many other flowers that are colouring the fields here.


Other flowers that you are not allowed to touch are as cheery as tulips: the orchids. When I first saw them, I did not love them too much, but now I am also taken with an orchid fever. What graceful flowers they are and what crazy forms they can take! They like to hide themselves pretty well, but once you find them they will not let you down when having a closer look. They will make you happy.


Peonies are not as sensational, but nevertheless form merry colours in a woody landscape. Their proud flowers just head out of the greenery. Or the small wild gladiolus which comes in an intense purple and colours many roadside or field. And then you have fields which copy the Dutch tulip fields with their thousands of poppies who like an intense red tapestry.


So you see, I cannot get enough of describing the flowers to you. But I soon have to stop writing about them. When the summer heat starts, all those magic flowers will disappear for the year. No hard feelings. The island will have more of these nice surprises.

Copyright © Smitaki 2006

Flower power

Have you ever been to the Keukenhof In Holland, the famous flower parK? I must admit that I never went there, although I was living very close. The flower fields I know, I used to bike a lot through the area. And when I was a child every year the whole family went to see the flower parade in Hillegom.

Here there is no Keukenhof. That does not matter, because the entire island looks like one big Keukenhof which from week to week seems to wander from one place to another. Here you have fields full of yellow flowers, changed to fields of red or purple flowers. In the region of Agiasos the flowers are overdoing it.

It is already weeks ago that around Molyvos the purple, violet, blue and pink anemones made way for the red anemones which are nearly finished flowering as well. When last week we went to Agiasos we were welcomed by fields of many coloured anemones, daisies and yellow- green euforbias. The higher you go, the later the anemones flower.

We saw fields full of pink, rose and purple anemones close to Plomari some weeks ago. Funny thing was that there they seem to grow in groups of colour, each group had their own. Here as well as in Agiasos, all colours are mixed. But it seemed that Agiasios had opened some pots of paint. I know they used to paint flowers in France. Bright pink and bright purple. Well, those were also the colours of the anemones near Agiasos. I never saw such colours that bright and hard and they nearly hurt your eyes, that bright they were glowing. We just could not believe our eyes...

These past weeks we saw a lot of coloured flower fields on the island, but the fields around Agiasos were the best. Thanks to their crazy colours and their stylish mix with the white daisies and the soft coloured euforbia's. For the moment they get the First Prize.

When so many flowers try to grab your attention, you should also look for the small ones. I already wrote about mini-mini flowers. At the moment it is also the season for the orchids. The island counts over 70 species.

Speaking about orchids I always think at those beautiful scaped flowers which are often used as a corsage at weddings or during a romantic rendezvous. Here on the island they are mostly somewhat smaller and when you do not pay any attention you easily miss them. Only when you're nose to nose with them you see their beauty, or better, their waywardness. The names are wonderful as well. Last week we found a 'naked-men-orchid'. In the field it looks like a ball of flowers, but if you look more closely you see that each flower has a naked man on its 'lip'! And believe me, you do not need too much imagination to see that.

We found a 'mirror-orchid', but here I do not quite understand why they give it that name. Sunday we ran into a 'bumblebee orchid' and those who love orchids do not jump up thinking that we found a new species (actually there exists a bee orchid), I gave it the name because this 'spider orchid' really looks like some bumblebees hanging on to a stalk. By this masquerade they seduce a bee to bring some pollen. And I must admit, this works very well, because we found several huge colonies of them.

Looking for all the orchids on the island is like an Odysee. Try to find them between all those magnificent flower fields. So, no, we do not need a Keukenhof here. We've got the Lesvian Flower Fields, made by nature itself. And when you want to visit them you do not risk landing in a traffic jam, nor do you have to pay any entry. It is probably due to bad PR that the Japanese have not yet discovered Lesvos and invaded the island with hundreds of planes.

Well, it is true that we have no tulip fields here on the island, but somewhere there must be some tulips hiding. I do love tulips and therefore we planted some Tulips from Amsterdam under the olive trees. Their fancy flowers just peek out of the tall growing grass and the field looks like a colourful Easter egg.

It is a little too early, we celebrate the orthodox Easter a week later than you do. Then probably the tulips will have lost their flowers. Though thanks to all those bright spring flowers we are already in the Easter mood. We wish you a very Happy Easter.

Copyright © Smitaki 2006

Tulips from Amsterdam

What a strange subject, you will think. Tulips in the midst of December. Well, I was looking that dumbfounded when I was planting tulips in our garden and discovered daffodils on the verge of blossoming. With Christmas we will have Christmas daffodils!

For my birthday I got a large packet of various flower bulbs. In fact I only asked for tulips from Amsterdam. The giver did not realize that crocus, iris, anemones and daffodils all grow in abundance on the island. I was happy to be able to put a lot of merry coloured crocus in the ground. The autumnal crocus just disappeared and for spring here they do not know any crocus.

The bright yellow daffodils from Holland got a place just next to their Greek fellows, the pale yellow daffodils. When they hurry up I will have for months at a row blossoming daffodils. However I hesitated planting the anemones. In a few weeks these flowers will be colouring our landscape, the first anemones last winter were out on the 1st of January. To put cultivated anemones near their wild sisters... The same thoughts were for the iris. In a little bit of time there will be plenty of them all around.

I was pretty happy with the snowdrops. As far as I know they do not exist in the Lesvian nature. Well, that is a pity because these white fragile flower heads bungling from a green tiny stem might be the most prettiest harbinger of spring. I really do hope that they will not get mixed up by our strange weather. A few days it was cold, these last days the sun shone away the chilly northern wind and today it is lovely and warm. However, when those small white beauties like it here and multiply, know that when you will discover them here in some ten years they originally came from Amsterdam.

The flower bulbs coming for sure from this region are the tulips. In the 16th century the famous tulips from Amsterdam were imported from Turkey (Lesvos in that time was under Turkish rule). In the midst of the 17th century there was even a 'Tulpo mania' in Holland: the bulbs were precious merchandise, they were subject of speculation and crazy prices got paid for them. One man once changed 2 loads of grain, 35 litres of beer, 2 loads of rye, 1500 kilo of butter, 4 fat oxes, 500 kilo of cheese, 12 big sheep, 1 silver cup, 5000 litre of wine and one pack of fabric against one tulip bulb! When this craziness was over like with a crash on the stock market many Dutchmen went broke. Now nobody speaks anymore of Turkish tulips. The Dutch took over the commerce and got world famous for it.

Some books say that there are tulips here in the Lesvian nature. For sure they are on the island of Chios. But I did not find them. Where is the tulip hiding on this island?

Lesvos is not famous for its spring flowers nor for it's cyclamen which make the autumnal landscape so pretty. Lesvos is famous for its olives and at this moment you can learn everything about this harvest. Everywhere you hear the sound of the click-clacking of the sticks against the trees, the chatter of the women picking the olives from the ground, the panting of the men carrying the loaded sacks to the cars, the mount of olives growing by day at the Olive Presses.

It is a good year for the olives. Thanks to the bad harvests in Spain and Italy the Greeks get a good price for a kilo of olive oil (In Greece they do not know litres but all is calculated in kilos) and the trees are just loaded with dark blue black olives. So many an olive farmer can bring in workers. And these days even labourers are well paid: 30 euro a day. Which makes everybody happy. Even the weather seems to cooperate. It looks like spring here on the island. And that is what the daffodils thought as well.

Copyright © Smitaki 2005