If you want a floral treat, visit SW France in Spring. I normally visit in Autumn after the intense heat of July and August has left everything crisped and parched. Spring is lush and green - orchids abound and the garrigue is alive with flowering Iris, Thyme, Rosemary, Cistus and Broom.

The alkaline soil in the garrigue is pale apricot, very stony and free draining, vines are cultivated widely in the area. The treescape is dominated by pines including the Umbrella Pine, Pinus pinea and spiky evergreen Kerm Oak, Quercus coccifera. The Oak scrub is being managed by the forestry department in some places and in one cleared area quite a number of Broomrape [Orobanche] could be seen. The terrain near Bizanet also includes little grassy valleys and denser woodland where evidence of boar can be found in the turned soil. One valley was filled with fluffy Manna Ash, Fraxinus ornus, in full flower. The Azarole, Crataegus azarolus a form of Hawthorn was also in flower, the berries are larger than our more common Hawthorns and the flower clusters neater.

The lower 'scrub' comprises primarily Thyme, Brooms and Rosemary with some Lavender and Cistus.

Wildlife includes Wild Boar [Sanglier] and many birds, including during my visit, Nightingale, Swallows and Cuckoos. Thankfully I didn't see any snakes, I hadn't realised quite how many different types there were in Southern France.

Glow worms were about too which is always a bit special, they are beetles which live underground for a few years then emerge, the females light up at night to attract the males, once mated the light goes out, they lay their eggs and they die. The weather was a little overcast and the butterfly count was only a Festoon and an Orange Tip. The huge spun purses of the Processionary Moth caterpillars were already in evidence - touche pas! These are apparently starting to become a problem in the UK and on no account touch or go near.

We also ventured into more hilly terrain a couple of hours drive to the North East of Bizanet which includes deciduous woodland such as Beech trees and more heathy/acid areas. As you might expect it is colder in winter and moister, little cascades tumbling down the hillsides and wild cherry provided a touch of Spring on the still mainly leafless hillsides.

Note: my observations were without the aid of any reference books - so forgive me for gaps and misidentifications!

Bulbs and rhizomes
Most of the Iris lutescens in the garrigue were over but a few of the tiny fragile flowers could still be seen hunkered down in the free draining stony soil. Despite the reference to yellow in the name the colour is variable - see right.

Muscari comosum appeared singly and not in great quantities and the much smaller dark blue Muscari racemosum was dotted singly about too, not in the untidy clumps we are used to seeing.

Allium roseum was just starting to open with attractive loose flared pale pink bells.

Elegant tall single fuzzy white spikes of what I think was Asphodelus albus flared up hillsides, on closer inspection the large starry flowers had fine brown lines. Further towards the Mont de l'Espinouse, large groups of these Asphodel appeared in the dry rocky terrain along the roadsides.

The mountain area reminded me of the edges of Exmoor and Spring was less advanced. Narcissus pseudonarcissus [with the lighter outer petals] were in full flower singly on the slopes and massed in the meadows closer to a river. I also saw Erythronium dens-canis for the very first time just coming into flower. In a deciduous wood there were clumps of a Scilla with rosettes of stubby fat leaves close to the ground and fairly pale blue starry flowers facing outward from the stem. Here and there Anenome nemorosa appeared but not in big drifts and Vinca flowered in the woodland along the track sides.

Herbaceous
In the drier areas of the garrigue the acid green of a Euphorbia popped up everywhere and on the rocky slopes the more sombre frogspawn bush, E characias. Thin spears of Wild Asparagus, Asparagus officinalis, were nearing the end of edible life, the top 6-8 inches are snapped off for eating leaving the rest of the plant to grow rather than cutting from the ground. The flavour is milder than cultivated asparagus. The odd dull purplish flowers of Salsify, Tragopogon porrifolius grew mainly along the vinyard edges.

Blue starry flowers of a lettuce relative, Lactuca perennis with very cut low growing leaves were in evidence as was another blue flower - Aphyllanthes monspelensis, which forms large grassy clumps, the single blue flowers appearing from papery bracts. It reminds me of the South African Dierama pauciflora in its style of growth.

Oddities included Aristolochia rotunda [right] growing on a grassy hillside sporting dull brown bent over tubes, it caught my eye as it initially looked as though the foliage had been frost blackened. I believe the Festoon butterfly caterpillars feed off various aristolochia.
Another 'oddity' is the Broomrape [Orobanche], which had appeared in an area cleared of the Kerm Oak, I think there could have been two types one pale the other a darker rusty red brown. The main one was probably Orobanche alba which parasitises thyme [see left].

Also in flower was Helianthemum appeninum with sparkling white flowers and thin grey foliage. The really vivid lemon yellow if the immortelle, Helichrysum stoechas was just starting to show - in full flower it will be an arresting sight.




Shrubs
The abundant Rosemary was in full flower, mostly the flowers were very pale almost off-white rather than blue, the thyme also in full flower showed a wider variation on the purple theme. The scent of the leaves when crushed was not particularly strong - maybe the summer heat increases the intensity of the oils in the leaves.

A number of different brooms were in flower accenting the hillsides with splashes of bright yellow. Another yellow flower, rather small and insignificant was sported by a retiring bush with small hard evergreen leaves - Cneorum tricoccon.

The only Cistus in flower in mid April was Cistus albidus, felted leaves and dark pinky-purple flowers with a distinct yellow pom-pom of central stamens [see right].

Orchids
I can't identify all the orchids, that would have needed a trusty field guide and an expert! In the rockier areas the distinctive Ophrys lutea were scattered everywhere, from small plants the few flowers are a bright yellowy green with black splotch on the lip; Bee Orchids, Ophrys apifera appeared flashily in the scrub cleared area. In the grassier slightly moister valley there were what I think were Lady Orchids, Orchis purpurea in full flower. In the cooler terrain of the hills to the NE of Bizanet the Early Purple Orchid, Orchis mascula grew in great swathes in the woodland areas. All the orchids pictured were taken between the 18th and 19th April.

Ophrys apifera / Bee Orchid	Ophrys lutea
		Orchis mascula / Early Purple Orchid	Orchis purpurea / Lady Orchid

References
Bulbs Roger Phillips & Martyn Rix [1989]
Flowers of the Mediterranean, Polunin & Huxley
Wildflowers of Britain and Northern Europe, R Fitter, A Fitter, M Blamey

>> http://crdp2.ac-besancon.fr/flore/flore/flor_aster.htm [very useful French website with good pictures]


Where I stayed - Chambres d'Hôtes St Antoine near Bizanet, you can walk straight out into the garrigue from St Antoine.

>> More about the local area