Cyprus Flora

Cyprus Flora history and information

Apart from plantations aimed at halting the encroachment of sand (as at Ayia Irini and Salamis, where mimosa is doing admirable work) in Cyprus , the principal districts administered by the Forestry Department are in the two mountain ranges. These areas total over 500' sq. m., of which perhaps 100 produce industrial timber for use in the mines, and for fuel, fruit boxes, etc. The remaining 400 sq. m. are the subject of longterm planning, because land reclamation is expensive. Its desuetude is in most instances due to forest fire, longstanding erosion and the depredations of goats. The whole huge area, roughly 17 per cent of the island, is fit for no other purpose except forestry, and awaits development with the aid of modern resources and sufficient funds. (Visitors with a special interest in forestry should contact the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and it may be possible for a conducted tour of some of the forest areas to be arranged.) The cedars in the southern range (c. brevifolia) are protected trees, and may not be cut or damaged. They are to be found in great numbers in the valley which bears their name. The Aleppo pine predominates on the mountains, and grows as high as 4,500 ft above sealevel, where it is replaced by the Troodos pine (p. nigra) with its characteristic straight trunk and curious flattened top. The dwarf golden oak is another feature of the Troodos range. It grows in the form of a bush, with attractive distinctive foliage dark green on one side and yellow on the reverse. The lower slopes of the mountains are usually scattered with arbutus and juniper scrub, and the valleys are made especially picturesque by individual poplar and cypress trees. Cypresses, too, are employed as windbreaks for the fruit plantations of the plains, and are often accompanied by groves of bamboo, and eucalyptus, which as well as absorbing water from the swamps makes very good fuel. Designated village fuel areas provide local supplies of firewood, thus preventing interference with the ordered growth of the plantations. Olive and carob trees dominate the lower hills and coastal lands, but the olive trees do not appear to have received their due share of attention, or perhaps they are less noticeable in their haphazard positions than they would be in the attractive terraces favoured by other countries. They yield no exportable surplus either of oil or of fruit.

What we know as spring flowers come after the first autumn rains: dwarf narcissus, grape hyacinths and scilla among the first, followed by autumn flowering cyclamen on the mountain slopes, and crocuses. Then, as true spring advances, the masses of colour reemerge: pink thyme and vetches as cover, ranunculus and lupins, freesialike gladiolus (G. triphyllus), cyclamen (C. persicum), whose tubers are relished by pigs, and which are at their most prolific near Kantara in March and April, and a peony (P. arietina var. orientalis) which flowers in May in Troodos. And there are clusters of a delightful miniature blue iris, a crocus (C. cypria) endemic to the island and an orchis (O. Kotschyi), which is rarer but can be located in the Paphos Forest. On lower ground, to the west of the Kyrenia range, there are wild tulips, the wine coloured T. cypria, to be found near Myrtou, and the lighter coloured T. oculis soils. Poppies and bright yellow oxalis grow at the wayside, and crops of flax add pale blue to the geometric patterns of new growth in the unfenced expanses of the Mesaoria. No one who has visited the northern range during the spring will ever forget the huge yellow umbels of the giant wild fennel (ferula communis) which seems to pose at every vantage point ready to be in the foreground of a picture. And everywhere there is the archaic asphodel, which has greater primitive significance than any other spring flower, for it was the one which Persephone plucked before she was carried off to the Underworld. In Cyprus the dead (or Plutonic) period is not the winter, but the days of summer drought.

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