Project Pancake Flora –
One of the plants which is common to all participating countries of the PANCAKE Project happens to be one very rare species – also known by the name of Beach Morning Glory. Listed already as “Very rare” even in the 70’s (A Flora of the Maltese Islands – S.M. Haslam, P.D. Sell and P.A. Wolseley 1977) and as “Rare and endangered” in Alex Casha’s Flora of the Maltese Islands (2020) this Red Data Book plant is only to be found on sand dunes. With its habitat being extremely rare in malta (and having suffered many destructive impacts) this bindweed is nowadays very difficult to spot in the Maltese Islands despite being a widespread species elsewhere in the world.
The pink-white striped solitary flowers appear around summertime and with its dark green heart-shaped leaves may appear quite dainty and delicate but in effect it is very well adapted to growing in some of the harshest conditions. Alas, this resilience has not been enough to spare it from its local fate. In the past it was popular as a foraging and medicinal plant but has since become a locally protected species.
Photo by Guido Bonett, text by Annalise Falzon
About Project PANCAKE:
As part of the Project PANCAKE (Plants and Nature Conveying Augmented Knowledge for Everyone) we are looking at a number of plant species chosen together with the deaf communities in Malta, Italy, Spain and UK to create new signs for plants which until now had never been described in sign language.
Check out our Community library for publications on local biodiversity!
Plants and Nature Conveying Augmented Knowledge for Everyone
