Sea Daffodils (Pancratium maritimum) Summer Colours: White

"The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life" (Jean Giraudoux The Enchanted)

The dunes are at their most beautiful when Sea Daffodils, aka Sand Daffodil, Sand
Lily and the Lily of St. Nicholas, start to bloom. This gentle and graceful bulbous plant, as I already mentioned before, is native to Mediterranean dunes and southwestern Europe. In hot summers its twisted leaves die back and sweet-scented flowers pop up right from the sand. Except for still, windless summer nights, you have to squat and bring your nose close to the flower to perceive its exotic and delicate fragrance. One of its traits is that it recognises and doesn't accept its own pollen —  it can only be cross-pollinated, nor can it be pollinated artificially. Finicky beauty.

Sea daffodil Pancratium maritimum flower close-up
(© 2011 LightColourShade. All rights reserved)

The Dunes in Late Spring.

There aren't many places left in the world where natural coastal dunes hasn't been gobbled up by ugly hotel skyscrapers, oil refineries and the like, especially in Europe. Fortunately, you can still come across the patches of almost virgin coastal dunes to chill out.

Sea daffodils (Pancratium maritimum) on the Mediterranean dunes.
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