Eco Hvar

Hvar's Wildflower Treasures

Published in Environment

The wildflowers on Hvar are a year-round joy. Even in the depths of winter, there is hardly a week without colours brightening up the countryside, contrasting with the island's rocks and the variegated dark green of the woodlands. 

Hvar's Wildflower Treasures

When they are not flowering, the wild plants die back or merge into the background, coming to life again to mark the seasons with their colourful contribution. There is no end to the pleasure of walking around the fields and woodlands, looking at the endless range of plants, many of them tiny, which contribute in turn to the natural splendour of the island. The varied shapes of the plants are part of the attraction, and each season has some specially interesting specimens. These are two examples from the spring season.

The tassel hyacinth

In spring from April to June the tassel hyacinths come into their own with their very fine purple heads.

 
The tassel hyacinth (leopoldia comosa or muscari comosum) is one of the species known as grape hyacinths, and is sometimes called tufted grape hyacinth, hairy muscari or edible muscari. It has fertile flowers which are brownish-green, bell-shaped, and held outwards on stalks which are roughly the same length as the flowers themselves, or slightly longer. At the top of the plant a tuft of bright purple sterile flowers on long stalks spreads upwards. It belongs to the Asteraceae family in the Asparagales order.

As one of the synonyms suggests, the tassel hyacinth is edible, and is used for food mainly in Italy and Greece. In Italy tassel hyacinth bulbs are called lampascioni or cipolline selvatiche (little wild onions), in Greece they are volvoi. I have not yet met anyone who eats tassel hyacinth bulbs in Dalmatia, probably because they are bitter tasting and most Dalmatians seem to be addicted to sugar nowadays. The bulbs are boiled and then preserved in oil or pickled, and are considered to be an appetite stimulant, as well as being diuretic. In Greece they are traditionally part of the speciality vegetarian foods eaten during Lent. Reading the descriptions of how they are prepared, it all sounds like tricky hard work, so I shall content myself, at least for the time being, with simply admiring the beautiful flowers when they spread over the fields in springtime.

The tragopogon

I was fascinated for years by the exquisite round feathery seedhead which would suddenly spread all around the countryside in springtime. Finding out what it was proved to be a challenge. People used to tell me that it was a type of dandelion, but that didn't seem to fit the bill. I had never seen the plant in flower. So far as I could see it consisted only of a stem with a slim head of spindles (seen to the front left of the picture below) which opened out to form the magnificent globe of the seedhead.

I was resigned to never finding out. After all, its beauty was not affected by my not knowing its name. And as I am very bad at remembering names anyway, perhaps it was not worth while searching. Then I made a chance visit to Marinka Radež's art atelier in Dol, and happened to see a painting in progress of the very plant. And not just the seedhead which had entranced me for all those years, but there was also a flower which I had not been aware of. It turned out that the flower only comes out for a short while during the day. Either I had not recognised it as being on the same plant, or I had always missed it. Marinka did not know what the plant was called, but I had enough clues to narrow my search, and finally tracked it down through an excellent website called the seedsite.

Tragopogon flower, April 2015. Photo Vivian Grisogono

So it was that I identified the mystery feathered spindly globe as a tragopogon. Definitely not a dandelion (taraxacum), although both belong to the Asterales order in the Asteraceae family. The tragopogon is also called salsify or goatsbeard. One member of the species, which consists of over 140 different types, the purple salsify or tragopogon porrifolius, is edible, mainly the root which apparently tastes like oysters, but also young shoots and leaves.

Tragopogon flower, April 2015. Photo Vivian Grisogono

© Vivian Grisogono 2013

Related items

back to top
You are here: Home environment articles Hvar's Wildflower Treasures

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Water firms could be let off pollution fines as part of government overhaul

    Exclusive: Campaigners claim changes will let companies ‘off the hook’, as government prepares to unveil new white paper for water industry

    Water companies could be let off fines for polluting the environment under changes announced in the government’s new white paper.

    The environment secretary, Emma Reynolds, hailed the changes as “once-in-a-generation reforms” featuring “tough oversight, real accountability and no more excuses”.

    Continue reading...

  • Looking for Miracle: why have so many dugongs gone missing from Thailand’s shores?

    The Andaman coast was one of very few places in the world with a viable population but then dead dugongs began washing up. Now half have gone

    A solitary figure stands on the shore of Thailand’s Tang Khen Bay. The tide is slowly rising over the expanse of sandy beach, but the man does not seem to notice. His eyes are not fixed on the sea, but on the small screen clutched between his hands.

    About 600 metres offshore, past the shadowy fringe of coral reef, his drone hovers over the murky sea, focused on a whirling grey shape: Miracle, the local dugong, is back.

    Continue reading...

  • Antarctic penguins have radically shifted their breeding season – seemingly in response to climate change

    Changing temperatures may be behind change in behaviour, which experts fear threatens three species’ survival

    Penguins in Antarctica have radically shifted their breeding season, apparently as a response to climate change, research has found.

    Dramatic shifts in behaviour were revealed by a decade-long study led by Penguin Watch at the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University, with some penguins’ breeding period moving forward by more than three weeks.

    Continue reading...

  • Is your body really full of microplastics? – podcast

    Studies detecting microplastics throughout human bodies have made for alarming reading in recent years. But last week, the Guardian’s environment editor, Damian Carrington, reported on major doubts among a group of scientists about how some of this research has been conducted.

    Damian tells Ian Sample how he first heard about the concerns, why the scientists think the discoveries are probably the result of contamination and false positives, and where it leaves the field. He also reflects on how we should now think about our exposure to microplastics

    Clips: Vox, Detroit Local 4

    Continue reading...

  • Huge amounts of extra land needed for RFK Jr’s meat-heavy diet guidelines

    Even 25% increase in meat and dairy consumption would require 100m more acres of agricultural land, analysis says

    The Trump administration’s new dietary guidelines urging Americans to eat far more meat and dairy products will, if followed, come at a major cost to the planet via huge swathes of habitat razed for farmland and millions of tons of extra planet-heating emissions.

    A new inverted food pyramid recently released by Donald Trump’s health department emphasizes pictures of steak, poultry, ground beef and whole milk, alongside fruits and vegetables, as the most important foods to eat.

    Continue reading...

  • Why have there been so many shark bites in Sydney? Experts say the conditions are a ‘perfect storm’

    Intense rainfall has caused the water to go murky in some areas, making them attractive spots for fish and sharks to feed

    Four people have been attacked by sharks in New South Wales in 48 hours, including three incidents at Sydney beaches.

    Any shark bite incident is traumatic and Sydney swimmers have been warned to stay out of the water.

    Continue reading...

  • Country diary: Is the willow Britain’s finest tree? In one sense, it is | Mark Cocker

    Buxton, Derbyshire: Others are taller, wider, older, but our varied stock of willows have a generosity that sets them apart

    Usually in this country when we think about important trees, we focus on height, girth, age, visual impact – in short, their material properties. Few therefore would probably name willow as a number one British species.

    Willows often have no central trunk as in our archetypal tree model, and few specimens are more than 7 metres tall. Yet there is a sphere in which willows are pre‑eminent: more invertebrates live on them (452 species) than any other trees, including oaks, their closest contenders (423). In his glorious guide Trees of Britain and Ireland, Jon Stokes points out that 160 lichens thrive on willows too.

    Continue reading...

  • Water winners: who will gain from the industry’s spending spree in England and Wales?

    As Labour shakes up regulation, suppliers are finally investing – but face problems such as contractor shortages and inflation

    When a sluice gate failed 24 metres below the water’s surface at Thames Water’s Queen Mother reservoir near London’s Heathrow airport, there were no easy fixes available. Emptying 37m cubic metres (1,307m cu ft) of water was not an option, meaning that helmeted divers were limited to 98-minute stints in the high-pressure environment.

    The risky project required a team on a floating platform with a crane to cut out the broken equipment with thermal lances, bolt a plate on to the reservoir wall, and install the new equipment. It took more than a year until last October to complete, according to Glenfield Invicta, the contractor that carried out the work for Thames Water.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘We thought they would ignore us’: how humans are changing the way raptors behave

    Experts call for tighter regulation as GPS tracking reveals how people’s behaviour affects the lives of some of the world’s largest birds

    Many people look up to admire the silhouette of raptors, some of the planet’s largest birds, soaring through seemingly empty skies. But increasingly, research shows us that this fascination runs both ways. From high above, these birds are watching us too.

    Thanks to the development of tiny GPS tracking devices attached to their bodies, researchers are getting millions of data points on the day-to-day lives of these apex predators of the skies, giving us greater insight into where they hunt and rest, and how they die.

    Continue reading...

  • 15 years after Fukushima, Japan prepares to restart the world’s biggest nuclear plant

    A return to nuclear power is at the heart of Japan’s energy policy but, in the wake of the 2011 disaster, residents’ fears about tsunamis, earthquakes and evacuation plans remain

    The activity around the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant is reaching its peak: workers remove earth to expand the width of a main road, while lorries arrive at its heavily guarded entrance. A long perimeter fence is lined with countless coils of razor wire, and in a layby, a police patrol car monitors visitors to the beach – one of the few locations with a clear view of the reactors, framed by a snowy Mount Yoneyama.

    When all seven of its reactors are working, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa generates 8.2 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power millions of households. Occupying 4.2 sq km of land in Niigata prefecture on the Japan Sea coast, it is the biggest nuclear power plant in the world.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds

Copyright © 2026 Eco Hvar. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Orion Informatika.