Roda Naturally

Volume 2, Issue 2

May 2009

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The magical firefly season in Roda is upon us and those visitors who arrive early each year know just what a spectacle it is. If you have never witnessed them, the fireflies in Roda are small, nocturnal winged beetles that produce a chemically induced light to attract a mate. The chemical is bad-tasting and also serves to warn off predators. Known scientifically as bio-

90% of the firefly’s energy is converted into light as opposed to just 10% for an old-style electric light bulb. If you are lucky enough to see a large swarm of fireflies,

chronisation one evening on the open ground behind Roda Park Restaurant as the male fireflies competed for their mates with their best flashes.
If you are in Roda soon, then look out for this amazing phenomenon. Find yourself a dark corner of a garden or the edge of an olive grove, keep away from light pollution and be prepared to be amazed.

Flashes in the Night

There are so many chamomile plants growing around St George’s Bay that it

“...has something of the smell of apples when disturbed...”

Calming Chamomile!

There is a wonderful story in which Venus transforms the blood of her dead lover Adonis into the anemone we know today. Venus said that the petals of the anemone were easily lost in the wind and symbolised her lost love for Adonis. In Greek mythology, Adonis is the nourisher of seeds and this lead to the making of ‘Adonis Gardens’ in terracotta pots which are placed outside Adonis temples on festival days.

you may actually witness them flashing in unison as light pulses from most of them at the same time. I saw this syn-

herbalists the whole world over. The word itself is Greek and comes from the words ‘chamos’ and ‘melos’ – ground & apple – based on the facts that it grows close to the ground and has something of the smell of apples when disturbed or crushed.
Chamomile is believed to calm, relax & promote sleep, cleanse & soften the skin, relieve stomach upsets & indigestion and soothe several gastro-intestinal, liver &

treating many of these conditions. It is also planted near to sick & ailing plants because of its reputation in Greece of being a ‘plant doctor’ which demonstrates that companion planting is still understood and practised widely. Apart from anything else, chamomile tea, made from good quality ingredients, makes a very pleasant drink.

“..pharmaceutical conglomerates draw their inspiration..”

It is from plants like these that today’s pharmaceutical con-glomerates draw their inspiration when producing expensive drugs and yet, in Corfu one can often find the basic ingredients growing wild and tap into the local knowledge of what they are used for. When all else fails, why not look back at traditional methods and re-discover what has long since been forgotten in our hectic world.

word that Greece has donated to the rest of the world. In Greek, the stem ‘anemos’ (wind), is applied to all sorts of things from gliders to windmills and weather-cocks to spinning wheels. In English, one dictionary lists 36 words from this one source - words such as anemology, anemometer and anemophobia. Don’t forget also the sea-anemone, waving its tentacles around as if they are waving in the wind to Venus herself.

“And in his blood that on the ground lay spill'd, A purple flower sprung up, chequer'd with white;
Resembling well his pale cheeks, and the blood, Which in round drops upon their whiteness stood..”

- Williams Shakespeare

Today, the an-emone is known affect-ionately as the ‘windflower’ and it is a

kidney dis-orders. You will find dried cham-omile in households across Corfu as part of the medical ar-senal for

is easy to think they are daisies – until you walk on them. It is then that the heady aroma tells you that this is something different altogether and it is easy to see why it came to the attention of

luminescence, the firefly’s unique flash pattern is mostly emitted by flying males to females, who are usually stationary, and each of the 136 species emits a different sequence of flashes. Something like