Nomad jellyfish - Rhopilema nomadica Galil, 1990 - Νομαδική μέδουσα

Rhopilema is a genus of jellyfishes.
Rhopilema nomadica, the nomad jellyfish, is a jellyfish indigenous to tropical warm waters of Indian and Pacific Oceans. Since 1970's it has been also found in Mediterranean Sea, where it entered via the Suez Canal. It has been found in the Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Israel, Turkey and in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Greece. R. nomadica's body is light blue and the bell is rounded. It can grow up to 10 kg of weight, and its bell is commonly 40–60 cm in diameter, but can be up to 90 cm. European Union lists it as one of the worst invasive marine species in European waters.
R. nomadica can cause very painful injuries to humans, since it has vermicular filaments, which are covered in venomous stinging cells, in the mouth arms.From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Underwater photos  Protaras Feb 2011  by Costas Constantinou

Underwater photos  by Kostas Aristeidou

Southern maidenhair fern', black maidenhair fern, maidenhair fern, and venus hair fern - Adiantum capillus-veneris L - Μαλλιά της Αφροδίτης ή Σκορπίδιν ή Πολυτρίχι - Cyprus

Adiantum capillus-veneris, the Southern maidenhair fern', black maidenhair fern, maidenhair fern, and venus hair fern, is a species of ferns in the genus Adiantum with a subcosmopolitan worldwide distribution. It is cultivated as a popular garden fern and house plant.

Adiantum capillus-veneris is native to the southern half of the United States from California to the Atlantic coast, through Mexico and Central America, to South America. It is also native to Eurasia, the Levant in Western Asia, and Australasia. There are two disjunct occurrences in the northern part of North America: at Cascade Springs in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Fairmont Hot Springs, British Columbia. In both instances, the warm microclimate created by hot mineral springs permits the growth of the plant far north of its normal range.

It is found in temperate climates from warm-temperate to tropical, where the moisture content is high but not saturating, in the moist, well-drained sand, loam or limestone many habitats, including rainforests, shrub and woodlands, broadleaf and coniferous forests, and desert cliff seeps, and springs. It often may be seen growing on moist, sheltered and shaded sandstone or limestone formations, generally south-facing in the southern hemisphere, north-facing in the north, or in gorges. It occurs throughout Africa in moist places by streams. On moist sandstone cliffs it grows in full or partial shade, even when unprotected

Adiantum capillus-veneris grows from 6 to 12 in (15 to 30 cm) in height; its fronds arising in clusters from creeping rhizomes 8 to 27.5 in (20 to 70 cm) tall, with very delicate, light green fronds much subdivided into pinnae 0.2 to 0.4 in (5 to 10 mm) long and broad; the frond rachis is black and wiry.

Adiantum capillus-veneris is cultivated and widely available around the world for planting in natural landscape native plants and traditional shade gardens, for outdoor container gardens, and commonly as an indoor houseplant

.The fern is listed as an endangered species in North Carolina (as southern maidenhair-fern) and threatened species in Kentucky (as venus hair fern), due to loss of Appalachian habitat.

This plant is used medicinally by Native Americans. The Mahuna people use the plant internally for rheumatism, and the Navajo people of Kayenta, AZ use an infusion of the plant as a lotion for bumblebee and centipede stings. The Navajo people also smoke it or take it internally to treat mental illness. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Photos Orkonta  9/12/2015 by George Konstantinou

Rustyback - Asplenium ceterach L. - Cyprus

Asplenium ceterach (syn. Ceterach officinarum) is a fern species commonly known as Rustyback. It is characterised by a shortrhizome which gives rise to several green fronds that have a pinnated lamina with trichomes on the abaxial (lower) surface, but not the adaxial (upper) one. These trichomes (hairs) are orange-brown in colour, hence the name "rustyback". The petiole is shorter than the corpus of the leaf.

This species is found in Western and Central Europe, including the Mediterranean region. It is associated with fissures in carbonate rocks and also grows on the mortar of stone and brick walls.

This fern species has been used medicinally as a diuretic.

It likes growing in rocky walls, especially in alkaline ones. Can be found growing up to 2700 metres above the sea level, although it prefers mountainous locations, where it is usually found growing in sunny rocky walls.

Unlike many others, this fern likes growing in full sun, and requires little, if any, humidity.

This fern is well known as a resurrection plant due to its ability to withstand desiccation and subsequently recover on rewetting. It has been shown that this is in part due to its high concentrations of phenolic compounds such as chlorogenic acid and caffeic acid which allow it to negate the destructive capacity of the reactive oxygen species generated by the drying process; the concentrations of these phenols decrease during the dehydration process. Enzymes such as peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase have also been shown to be important in allowing this fern to cope with desiccation; the concentrations of these enzymes increase when the fern is subjected to water shortages.From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Photos Orkonta  9/12/2015 by George Konstantinou

Hedera pastuchovii subsp. cypria - Κισσός, Τέτσης - Endemic to Cyprus

See also - Λίστα Ενδημικών Φυτών της Κύπρου - List of Endemics plants of Cyprus

Endemic to Cyprus
Ο ενδημικός Κισσός της Κύπρου

Hedera, commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to Western Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and across central-southern Asia east to Japan and Taiwan.

Photos Orkonta  9/12/2015 by George Konstantinou

Το ξωκλήσι Αγίου Γεωργίου του Σπόρου στον Κορμακίτη. Στην τοποθεσία Κόρνος - Cyprus

Βόρεια του Κορμακίτη, στην περιοχή του Κόρνου, υπάρχει παρεκκλήσι αφιερωμένο στον Άγιο 

Γεώργιο το Σπόρο, το οποίο κτίστηκε το 1852.
Ο Κόρνος ήταν εμπορικό κέντρο εξαγωγής χαρουπιών. Κάθε χρόνο, στις 3 Νοεμβρίου, τελείται Θεία Λειτουργία από τη Μαρωνιτική Κοινότητα προς τιμήν του Αγίου. Ο μήνας Νοέμβριος σηματοδοτεί την έναρξη της γεωργικής περιόδου, γι’ αυτό και οι γεωργοί προσεύχονται στον Άγιο Γεώργιο για πλούσια σοδειά.
Σύμφωνα με την παράδοση, μετά τη Θεία Λειτουργία, οι Μαρωνίτες παίρνουν το μεσημεριανό τους δίπλα στη θάλασσα για να ευχαριστήσουν τον Άγιο Γεώργιο
Πηγή http://www.maronitesofcyprus.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=item&id=121&Itemid=810&lang=el

Photos 6/12/2015 by George Konstantinou

See also

Κοινότητα Μαρωνιτών της Κύπρου - Ιστορία - Χωριά - Εκκλησίες - Τοπία - Maronite Community of Cyprus - History - Villages - Churches - Landscape

Παλαιά αποθήκη τερατσιών στην περιοχή Κόρνος στον κατεχόμενο Κορμακίτη

Photos 8/4/2010 by George Konstantinou