The winter’s spring

At the beginning of October the weather changes. The long awaited rain has arrived and has cooled the earth and the air.

In the Balearic Islands, especially in Majorca, we call autumn "The Winter’s Spring". In both the true spring, and the "winter’s spring", two climatic factors coincide. It is warm and it is humid. Under such conditions many of our endemic species, especially the geophytes, such as bulbs, and the summer deciduous plants, become active and produce flowers thus provoking a "second spring" before the cold winter sets in.

Throughout the summer, growth has been limited by lack of water and high temperature. All plants slowed down their metabolism for survival. Now autumn arrives, cool and full of life. Temperature and lack of water are, no longer, growth limiting factors. The amount of daylight plants receive is shorter, an event which triggers new growth and other changes in many of them.

How Mediterranean vegetation reacts to the arrival of rain and to cool autumn weather after summer drought

A self-guided tour of the Garden will allow to you find out more about this unusual behaviour. You will also discover the growth pattern and the role played by autumn in the plants’ life cycles.

OCTOBER, NOVEMBER, DECEMBER ITINERARY. BALEARIC FLORA.

Corresponds with areas M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, on the S.B.G. map.

This is a self-conducted itineraries through the Soller Botanical Gardens. You should follow the areas marked on the map provided. Remember: we use the scientific names for plants.

Introduction

Once the hot dry Mediterranean summer is over, cool nights and first rains activate all those species that survived the summer’s harsh conditions in a state of latency.

Plants take advantage of the new weather conditions, our "Winter Spring", according to their naturally programmed life cycles.

• Those annuals which have gone through summer as seeds, initiate their cycle. With the first rains, germination takes place and the plant will grow right through the winter, bloom in spring and bear fruit just before summer sets in.
• Geophytes, those plants that have survived the hot season underground (bulbs, corms, rhizomes), come to life in the autumn. In some species, flowers appear first and are followed by their leaves, which, through photosynthesis, will accumulate nutrients over the winter to allow the plant’s survival on the following summer. In others, the leaves come out first; now photosynthesis helps accumulate nutrients so the plants can produce flowers next spring.
• Perennials also take advantage of the new climatic situation and start a first budding season in the "winter’s spring". However, the real growth will take place in spring, thus avoiding the possible winter damage of tender new shoots, by rare frost or cold winds.
• Some Winter deciduous plants, such as the lime trees or the ginkgo at the Soller Botanical Garden, will loose their leaves in autumn, the winter temperature being too cold for them. However, we do not have too many examples of winter deciduous plants in the Mediterranean basin, since our winter temperatures are typically mild, and frost is rare.
• Summer deciduous are all those bushes and trees that loose their leaves in summer. In autumn leaves reappear to be followed, in some cases, very soon after by flowers, as happens with Anagyris foetida (Bean Trefoil).

M2: Smilax aspera

The Sarsaparilla blooms in autumn. Its flowers are not showy, but they have an exquisite perfume that attracts pollinating insects. The Sarsaparilla has male and female plants. The root is used traditionally as a diuretic, to lower fever and to help perspiration. The smallest of the three varieties shown here is the native to the Balearic Islands.

M2: Narcissus elegans

Around the Garden you will find circles marking off small areas, where species of bulb are planted. Many of them flower, or start their new growth in autumn, such as the narcissus.

M2: Femeniasia balearica

This spiny little cushion plant is native of Minorca and it survived the hot summer with bare spiky branches. Now, with the first rainfall, green leaves begin to unfold. Photosynthesis will help accumulate nutrients to allow a good spring flowering.

M3: Erica multiflora

The heather starts flowering in autumn, but at Christmas, we can still find flowers on the branches. Is abundant in all mountainous areas and on the garrigue, the low growth common to all the Balearic Islands. It can be found also in the rest of the western Mediterranean and in Portugal.

M3: Ranunculus bullatus

This small yellow flowers appear after the first summer rains, at the beginning of autumn. They have shiny yellow petals, a pleasant aroma and last until Christmas.

M3: Ferula communis

The Giant Fennel has a rhizome that survives throughout the summer in a state of latency underground. With rain, cool weather and shorter nights, leaves appear and grow very large. This huge plant produces big flowers.

M4: Paeonia cambessedesii

The peony flower that bloomed last spring is now a fruit. The seeds are situated on the upper part of a fleshy pod open at the top. The characteristic fertile blue-black seeds have nearly 25% oil content. Legends and stories are abundant about medicinal properties of this plant One of them, claims to control epileptic fits by wearing a necklace made with the seeds.

M4: Arum pictum

Lords-and-ladies is an evergreen plant with big, typically variegated dark green leaves. It blooms in autumn and is characteristic of our garrigue, or low growing bushy landscape.

M4: Viola jaubertiana

This small violet is endemic to Majorca. It is protected by law and it grows in restricted areas on the northern mountains or Serra de Tramuntana. It is a perennial plant with shiny leaves. It reproduces by sending runners and by fertile female flowers which have no petals and which appear in autumn. Male, petal/bearing flowers appear in spring

M4: Urtica atrovirens ssp. bianori

It is a perennial plant, endemic

to the Balearics. A close relative grows in Corsica and in Sardinia. It has fine bristly hairs swollen at the base.

M5: Sternbergia lutea

It is also known as Yellow Autumn Crocus. In the Soller Botanical Gardens it heralds the autumn. It blooms for approximately two weeks. Leaves emerge after the flowers and last until January, when the plant bears fruit. It is common in Majorcan gardens and often appears naturalized in the wild.

M5: Scilla numidica

It is a plant endemic to North Africa but also grows on two spots of high ground in Ibiza. It likes shady damp protective crevices on rocky sites. It is a geophyte plant typical of autumn.

M5: Arbutus unedo

The arbutus or strawberry-tree, is a bush that can grow to up to 3 metres high. Its bark is of an intense shade of red and characteristically bears red fruit which are edible when ripe. We advise not to eat too many since it can make you dizzy, give you a headache or even make you sick. The name unedo in Latin indicates you should eat only one. Flowers appear in October, and coincide with the ripening of the previous year’s fruit.

M5: Euphorbia dendroides

This spurge, as other varieties (E. charcias, E. margalidiana) growing in the same areas, comes to life again after the summer draught. Its splendid green foliage is a delight to the eye, adding colour to the Mediterranean autumn landscape.

M5: Anagyris foetida

The Bean Trefoil is a summer deciduous bush. At the beginning of autumn new leaves and flowers make their appearance. Eventually it will produce a pod not unlike the Carob bean, but the seeds are toxic and are emetic. Its name comes from the leaves’ foetid stench.

M5: Arisarum vulgare

The Friar’s Cowl, found behind the Junipers at the Soller Botanical Gardens, are geophytes with autumnal leaves and flowers. The commonly grow among the olive trees and in shady areas.

The Mediterranean Basin plants now have what they had been waiting for throughout the summer: "the winter’s spring". Now you can see how, what looked dead a few weeks ago, comes to life, becomes green, and changes the landscape dramatically.

Come and visit the Soller botanical Garden, when the plants native to the Balearic Islands go through the cold winter accumulating nutrients, so they can explode into a colourful show next spring.