Crete: Amazing Arums, April 2011

Am I the only person who thinks the Araceae are great?? There's something very impressive about these bizarre flowers, and any day with a new Arum is a good day. Over the last couple of days we've found three, as well as the leaves of Arisarum vulgare, and there are more out there... I wonder how long it would take to see all of Europe's Araceae? Now there's a challenge...

Arum concinnum, a common plant of the shadier places around here, especially in the old olive groves around the village.

Arum creticum, on a dry hillside near Kissos

The arum to beat all arums! oh, except it's not actually an Arum... the utterly superb Dragon Arum Dracunculus vulgaris, (or 'that horrid plant', according to my travelling companions!) in full flower in the olive groves around the village. Worth the price of the flight just to find this!

*edit. How could I have failed to mention the smell (some might say stench!) of this plant... purported to smell like rotting flesh, I'm not so sure... but it definitely smells of something pretty bad! But for me, it's not a patch on the small of that lovely little Bisarum from Andalucia...