Project Pancake Flora – Plants and Nature Conveying Augmented Knowledge for Everyone In our December 2021 newsletter, we introduced the project PANCAKE which is being led by FoEMalta and includes international partners from 3 other countries with the aim to bring the silent world of plants accessible to the deaf community by creating new...
Around this time of year this winter flowering evergreen shrub paints one of the prettiest natural landscapes by colouring pink the limestone garigue and valley sides with its clusters of bell-shaped flowers (occasionally found in darker shades or, rarely, almost white). This native plant, the only one represented in Malta from the species-rich Ericaceae family...
One of the most spectacular archaeophytes of Malta, introduced in ancient times, is the Carob Tree, with its dome-like canopy providing a shady refuge for both wildlife and humans all year round. After these autumn rains it is not only the visual landscape which changes around us, but even the olfactory one as flowering male...
Enter Autumn! (or so we hope…for the sake of all farmers, all wildlife and all gardens in need of some rest from the heat…) The Autumn Squill is the miniature equivalent of the Sea Squill we introduced last August as our plant of the month. This tiny indigenous flower of less than a cm is...
Alongside the Sea Squill (featured in August) the Ground Thistle is one of the only species to flower boldly at this time of year. Its first signs of life come as quite a surprise in the form of a bright pink flower emerging from the drab landscape and dried up foliage from the preceding season....
August is one of the toughest months for all wildlife and few plants have the resilience to survive the scorching heat and drought of the Maltese dry season. Annual species usually complete their life cycle before the heat while perennials adopt extreme strategies such as by having tiny but tough leaves, by going dormant in...
Win a bee hotel or get a free tote bag! Would you like to help us save bees and ecosystems while having the chance of winning a bee hotel for your own home or office?Over the past months Friends of the Earth Malta has been circulating the petition (read more here) as part of a...
Purple and lilac are once again the colours of this month’s featured flower thanks to the spectacular blooming of the Chaste Tree (Vitex agnus-castus) which occasionally has pinkish lighter flowers. Known with various names in both Maltese (Għadiba, Bżar tal-Patrijiet) and English (Chasteberry, Monk’s Peppers) this deciduous Mediterranean species is one of the only indigenous...
