Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Tuscana Flora

I recently returned from a trip to Italy and France and ohhhh the beautiful plants I am afraid I may need your assistance to name them as I have forgotten.  I had no pen and paper with me to write the names down when I asked the cook the name of them.  While in Tuscany, we stayed in San Casciano Val Di Pesa.  There were steep hills with grapes and olive trees growing everywhere.  The olive trees don't seem to grow much taller than about 12 feet tall.  The age of the tree is shown in the thickness of the trunk and the gnarliness of it.  Does that make sense?  The older trees reminded me of old men.
 The peppers to the left we found growing like a little houseplant outside in a little basket.  They had many colorful little peppers like this at the farmer's market.  The plant to the right is the one he told me the name of and I just cannot remember.  They grew all over the place too.
I just love these orange and yellow flowers.  They look like Lantana.  They grown here in the Clearwater area too.  These are what some call a wildflower and others call a weed.  It's all in your viewpoint.  Every day I walk Miss Savannah and every day we see patches of these sweet flowers.


 The yellow flowers to the right seem like they might be in the spurge family or goldenrod family maybe. 
We'll add some of the flora from Nice tomorrow.