SPETSES
Plants and Animals
Plants and Animals
Popular destinations GREECE
| Aegina | Alonissos | Andros |
| Chios | Corfu | Crete |
| Hydra | Kalymnos | Karpathos |
| Kefalonia | Kos | Lefkas |
| Lesbos | Mykonos | Naxos |
| Paros | Patmos | Peloponnese |
| Poros | Rhodes | Samos |
| Santorini | Skiathos | Skopelos |
| Spetses | Thasos | Zakynthos |
Plants and Animals
Plants
Greece is a relatively small country, but with an abundant flora. It has more species of flowers, plants and trees on its territory than any other country in Europe, more than 6,000 species, including about 600 species found only in Greece.
Spetses, also called the Jasmine Island, is home to a beautiful cross-section of all these species throughout the year. But in spring, Spetses really comes alive. Every hill, open space, courtyard and garden has a wide range of trees, flowers and plants of a colourful splendour.
Spetses Pine forestsPhoto: Marvo Verch in the public domain
Two thirds of the island is covered with pine trees, especially the Aleppo ones. In the hills, under many pine trees, there are cans to collect the resin that drips from the trees. This resin is used to make the famous Greek retsina wine.
Cereals, wild olives and almonds are grown on the sunny terraces in the hills, and oranges, lemons, grapes and loquats (Japanese (woolly) medlar or neffel) grow in courtyards and gardens. Spetses also has an abundance of fig trees, pistachio trees, oleander, mirtes, carob trees and monk's pepper or chaste tree. Among the trees that have been introduced in recent centuries are eucalyptus trees, acacias, Indian lilacs, bougainvilleas, wisterias and jacarandas.
There are too many to mention, but on Spetses grow aromatic herbs such as thyme, marjoram, savory, rosemary and burnet. Perhaps the Venetians named the island Spetses for all these herbs, because the Italian word for herb is 'spezie'.
Jacaranda in blossom, SpetsesPhoto: Anna Anichkova CC 3.0 no changes made
Here is a list of the flowers, plants and herbs found on Spetses: Cyclamen graecum, true camomile, crowned goose flower, large or common poppy, poinsettia, small or pale poppy, madonna lily, man's faithful, Neapolitan cyclamen, shrubby or summer daisy.
Animals
Cabbage White, SpetsesPhoto: Matt Prosser CC 3.0 no changes made
Annoying animals that also live on Spetses are mosquitoes and cockroaches. More beautiful is the cabbage white, and also the caterpillar is very colourful. In the sea around Spetses, the loggerhead turtle can be found, but also the sea urchin on the sea bottom, which is a very painful thing to step on.
Sources
Wikipedia
CIA - World Factbook
BBC - Country Profiles
Last updated April 2024Copyright: Team The World of Info