Tag Archives: plants

Merendera

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This is a new wildflower for me, I’ve never noticed it before: are the conditions this year most suitable for it? merendera1 23-3-16It is Merendera Montana, growing as a scattered carpet of white flowers. The leaves come later. Each flower is star-shaped with six petals. According to my flower book, the petals are pale lilac but ours here are white. Common throughout Iberia in rocky areas, sparse grass and mountain pastures: sounds just like our valley, then. I found these in a rocky spot beside our track where it winds through the olive grove.

5 to remember
las condiciones – the conditions
dispersado/a – scattered
una alfombra – a carpet
en forma de estrella – star-shaped
los pétalos – the petals

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
Pretty white star-shaped #wildflower: Merendera in #Spain via @Spanish_Valley http://wp.me/p3dYp6-1Jd

This, turned into that

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With daily temperatures in the mid-30s now [Centigrade], the valley around us is changing rapidly. Wildflowers are no more, their colourful blooms have done their job and are turning into seedheads which bob in the heavy summer breeze. white flower to seedhead1This [above] is Wild Carrot, Daucus Carota. Its plate-sized white flowers line the roadside verges here until mid-summer when the seedheads appear [below], like goblets lifted to the sun. The umbel [flowerheads which open out rather like umbrellas] are flat or slightly concave, and similarly the seedheads also incurve conspicuously.

5 to remember
agitarse – to bob
al borde de carretera – the roadside verge
una copa – a goblet
un paraguas – an umbrella
conspicuamente – conspicuously
common wildflowers of spain by austen colwell 24-8-15

I identified this plant using Common Wildflowers of Spain [Santana Books]

Fresh life

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At this time of year we look for every sign that winter is ending and spring is on its way. The nights are still cold, though we are not high enough for snow it does dust the high peaks of the Sierra de las Nieves. rose shoots 9-2-15ivy leaf 9-2-15But look closely and we find new leaves and flower buds waiting for a spot of hot sunshine. honeysuckle leaf 9-2-15geranium leaf 9-2-15flowering rosemary 9-2-155 to remember
un brote –a  shoot [on a plant]
el final – the ending
no suficientemente alto – not high enough
la cima – the peak
un capullo – a flower bud [on a plant]

Green and gold

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At this time of year, life and death seems to sit side-by-side. The reeds beside the river demonstrate this. During the winter, these reeds die off completely but stay in-situ, forming a golden line alongside all riverbanks and streams around here. A winter home for all kinds of small mammals and insects. canes1 5-10-14canes2 5-10-14canes3 5-10-14Now, they are starting to die-off. But some plants still have healthy new growth: it only takes a couple of warm sunny days here and the shrubs get a fresh burst of growth. So now, the riverbanks are lined by this wonderful wall of green and gold, waving in the wind. canes4 5-10-14canes5 5-10-14canes6 5-10-145 to remember
uno al lado del otro – side-by-side
demonstrar – to demonstrate
de todo tipo – all kinds of
ir muriendo – to die-off
la ribera – the riverbank