WILD FLOWERS OF THE ALGARVE
SOUTHERN PORTUGAL

Northern Europe is deep in winter but here in the Algarve it is warm. Often the skies will be grey and rains will fall for a week at a time. However it rains for very few months in the year and it is this rain which makes the rivers run, replenishes the ground water and ensures plant growth.

But the skies are often clear, the sun shines warm and here and there the earliest almond trees produce the first flowers on bare dark branches. The dry fields and roadsides begin to flush green. The most showy of the flowers is an invader from South Africa, Oxalis pes-caprae. This yellow flowered weed is sometimes known as the Bermuda buttercup.