Flowering Mediterranean Maquis Shrubland - Sardinia

The word maquis comes from the Italian word macchia (English: thicket). The extremely dense nature of maquis made it ideal for bandits and guerrillas, who used it to shelter from the authorities. It is from this meaning that Second World War French resistance movement, The Maquis, derived its name.

Sugar beet field - Riehen, Switzerland

Water Lily (Nymphaeaceae)

The flowering plants of water lilies live in fresh water areas in temperate and tropical climates around the world. The widespread use of them as ornamental plants resulted in their invasive spread in some areas as the plant can infest slow moving bodies of water and is difficult to eradicate. The water lily can easily be confused with the lotus flower, an entirely different plant. In contrast to the water lily, the lotus flower has a distinctive circular seed pod in its center.

Pink and yellow Anacamptis (Pyramidal Orchid, Anacamptis pyramidalis) - growing wild on Signal de Lure (1826 m) - Alps-de-Haut-Provence, France

Cotton Grass (Eriophorum, Cottongrass, Cotton-grass, Cottonsedge, bog cotton) - Swedish Lapland

Actually, cotton grass is not a grass, more a reed being a member of the sedge family. It grows in cold bogs, swampy ground, and as it is able to flourish in areas that are too cold for trees, it is widespread in Arctic Tundra. The fluffy white heads provide a warm nest for the seeds by storing solar radiation and they provide the wind-assisted dispersal of the attached seeds. Cotton grass was once used for stuffing pillows and mattresses and for making candle wicks. In the World War I it was harvested with sphagnum moss to make wound dressings. Nowadays, it is regarded as a costless side product of peat excavation and was used as oil sorbent in marine environmental protection experiments in Finland.

Sprouting ginger (Zingiber officinale)

Ginger is a reed-like plant with about one meter high stems, white and pink buds and yellow flowers and is often used as landscaping around subtropical homes. Ginger is consumed as delicacy, medicine, spice and tea. It is an excellent free radical trapper and may thus prevent cell damage and cancer and is used to preserve food. In folk medicine ginger is used to provide relief from stomach colics, pregnancy-related naucea and vomiting, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, or joint and muscle injury. Tea brewed from ginger slices is a well-known folk remedy for colds. In Korea, slices of ginger root are stored with honey for a few weeks to obtain preserved sweetened ginger which are used to brew a sweetened tea by pouring them with boiling water.  

Magnolia blossom

Magnolia is an ancient plant which evolved over 95 million years ago, long before bees appeared. Its flowers developed to encourage pollination by beetles and have extremely tough carpels to avoid damage from beetles. A magnolia tree has been first described in 1703 by Charles Plumier on the island of Martinique and was named Magnolia after the French botanist Pierre Magnol. The aromatic bark and the buds of Magnolia tree has long been used as medicine in China and Japan against as an anti-anxiety and cancer inhibiting agent. Magnolia bark has shown also anti-allergic and - astmatic properties and is a strong agent against caries. 

Amanita muscaria (fly agaric, fly amanita, toadstool) - Kinnekulle, Sweden

Amanita muscaria is a poisonous and psychoactive fungus which is easily recognizable by its white stem and white-spotted deep red cap. It is widely encountered in popular culture. Altough generally considered as poisonous, deaths from its consumption is extremely rare and it is eaten in some regions after parboiling. It was used as an intoxicant and entheogen by the people of Siberia, and nowadays it is primarily famed for its hallucinogenic properties. The white spots may wash out with heavy rain. 

Canola field - Riehen, Switzerland

Canola was originally a trademark meaning "Canadian oil, low acid" and the plant is a cultivar of rapeseed or field mustard. Though the rapeseed oil with 63 % unsaturated fatty acids is a valuable edible oil, it was affected by significant amounts of erucic acid, a known toxin. With the cultivar canola the erucic acid content was reduced below 2 % which is believed to cause no harm in humans.

Clematis (Jackmanii Superba) - Mariefred, Sweden

Clematis, also called the aristocrat under climbers - due to its rich hues, was called 'pepper vine' by early pioneers of the American Old West as they used the seeds and the acrid leaves of the plant as a pepper substitute. However, the essential oils and compounds of the entire genus are extremely irritating to the skin and mucous membranes. Unlike black pepper, they can cause internal bleeding of the digestive tract if digested in large amounts. Despite its toxicity, Native Americans used very small amounts of clematis as an effective treatment for migraine headaches and nervous disorders.  

Rhododendron wardii var puralbum

Lime blossom (Tilia - also linden or basswood)

The lime tree produces fragrant and nectar-producing flowers, the medicinal herb lime blossom. They are very important for bee populations and are used for herbal tea and tinctures.

Garlic bulbs (Allium sativum)

Garlic is rich in antioxidants and is a good medicine against heart disease, common cold and cancer. Garlic may make the actions of blood-thinning-medications stronger, increasing the risk of bleeding (University of Maryland Medical Center).

Herbarium - Samos, Greece

Black Mulberry fruits (Morus nigra) - Haut-Provence, France

The mulberry tree is depending on the type white- or black-fruited. Immature fruits are white, green or pale yellow. The black mulberry fruits turn pink, then red, dark purple and finally black when ripening. The taste is sweet with a nice flavor. 

Duckweed (Lemna minor)

Cornfield - Barley (Hordeum)