OPTIMA Newsletter 38

Botanical Calendars and Postcards
57. 56BAnonymous – Saperi e sapori del Parco
delle Madonie. – Arianna, Geraci
Siculo, & Parco delle Madonie, Petralia
Sottana, [2004 for] 2005. 17 sheets, illustrated
in colour; ring binding.
“Knowledge and tastes of the Madonie
Nature Park” is a collaborative project aiming
to collect and record local traditions in
the villages surrounding and supporting the
Park. The present table calendar (in postcard
format, double-faced with identical sides)
bears images of six plants used as vegetables,
reproduced from 19 th century colour
plates of unknown source: chicory, fennel,
beet, Scotch thistle (Onopordum illyricum),
leek and borage. Monthly, plant presentations
(all texts by botanists of Palermo University)
alternate with cooking recipes of
traditional dishes, by local cooks and innkeepers.
All revolves around the fashionable
term and concept “ecogastronomy” – but
you might be hard put to come up with an
edible result when trying to apply the rather
sketchy recipes by using what you find on
your local market.
W.G.
58. 57Boula Iôan. LAMPROPOULOU – Anthê
tou dêmou Filiatrôn kai tês euruterês
periohês tês Trifulias. – Anko Press,
s.l., [2006 for] 2007. 16 recto printed
sheets, colour photographs; ring binding.
Filiatrá is a village in Messenia, north of
Pilos on the coast of SW Peloponnesus. Last
year it took the initiative to publish a first
calendar of its own and to devote it to wildflowers.
The translated title reads: “Flowers
of the municipality of Filiatrá and of the
wider area of Trifilía”. Professor Voula
Lambropoulou signs as text author and photographer.
As her name is unknown in botany
I looked it up on the Web and found,
much to my surprise, that she is a specialist
Publications
of gender study, professor of philosophy at
Athens University.
The photographs are of excellent quality
and exquisite beauty, but not all represent
wildflowers, several are of garden ornamentals.
The botanical contents of the texts are
of marginal interest, whereas there are, in
some instances, instructive data pertaining to
mythology and classical history. Veronica
glauca features as “Myosotis sylvatica”, a
slip to be condoned in view of the author’s
professional background.
W.G.
Floristic Inventories and Checklists
59. 58BChristian STIERSTORFER & Markus
VON GAISBERG – Annotated checklist
and distribution of the vascular plants
of El Hierro, Canary Islands, Spain.
[Englera (ISSN 0170-4818), 27.] –
Botanischer Garten & Botanisches Museum
Berlin-Dahlem, Berlin, 2006
(ISBN 978-3-921800-59-1). 221 pages,
photographic frontispiece, maps; paper.
The two authors have explored the botany
of El Hierro, the westernmost Canary
Island, for several years, starting in 1997.
The study of the vegetation provided the
subject of their doctoral theses, dealing with
the lower areas (Gaisberg; see below) and
the forest belt (Stierstorfer), both published
in 2005 in the series “Dissertationes Botanicae”.
The floristic and chorological results of
their studies are set out in the present book.
Two full inventories of the flora of El
Hierro exist, both fairly recent, but nevertheless
there is good justification for having
published this new one. Apart from a number
of new taxa records, the authors contribute
original information on the naturalisation
status of many species, and point at numerous
others that were recorded in error (or, as
they carefully write, the presence of which
they were unable to confirm). Often they add
critical or explanatory notes, and cite refer-
2009 OPTIMA Newsletter No. 38 (33)