Nature in Greece | Mountains, lakes, forests, fauna and flora
Craterellus cornucopioides
Craterellus cornucopioides, or horn of plenty, is an edible mushroom. It can also be known as the black chanterelle, black trumpet, trompette de la mort (French) or trumpet of the dead. The Cornucopia, in Greek mythology, referred to the magnificent horn of the nymph…
Natural beauties of Greece
Greece is a very diverse land full of surprises. Most of Greece consists of mountains, making our country one of the most mountainous in Europe. Mount Olympus, the mythical abode of the Greek Gods, culminates at Mytikas peak 2,917 m (9,570 ft), the highest in…
Amanita caesarea
Amanita caesarea, commonly known in English as Caesar’s mushroom, is a highly regarded edible mushroom in the genus Amanita, native to Zagori, Greece. This mushroom was a favorite of early rulers of the Roman Empire hence it’s name Caesarea. It was known to and valued…
Autumn mushrooms
Autumn is the best time to go hunting for mushrooms. The past few weeks were quite rainy for the season so when the temperature rose a bit and the sun shone the magic world of the fungi made it’s glorious appearance in the forests…
Perama cave, Ioannina
Perama cave, one of the most important caves in the world, belongs to the horizontal caves according to its morphology – geometric structure with a length of about 1 km and was created 1.500.000 years ago in the interior of Goritsa hill, exactly above the village…
Blackberries
Greek: βατόμουρα A purply black-coloured berry comprising many individual seed-containing fruits surrounding a cone-shaped core. Wonderfully juicy, they’re good raw (straight from the hedge!) or cooked and are bursting with vitamin C. Wild, they’re often called brambles meaning any impenetrable scrub. Sometimes called the “Cabernet…
Boletus
The name is derived from the Latin term bōlētus ‘mushroom’ from the Ancient Greek “βωλίτης”, ultimately from bōlos/βώλος ‘lump’ or ‘clod’. In Greece Boletus is also called “the king of mushrooms” – “βασιλομανίταρο”. The fruit body has a large cap which on occasion can reach…
Cantharellus cibarius (Chanterelle)
Cantharellus cibarius, or else known as the chanterelle, golden chanterelle or girolle, is a fungus. It is orange or yellow, meaty and funnel-shaped. On the lower surface, underneath the smooth cap, it has gill-like ridges that run almost all the way down its stipe,…
Mushroom hunting season
Lots of rain for the season and the imminent sunshine due only mean one thing… mushrooms! Already Cantharellus cibarius, commonly known as the chanterelle, have been spotted at the lower altitudes of the Zagori and Morchella, the true morels, at the fir tree forests of Mitsikeli….
