Please help ID interesting flower in Mosul, Iraq

I'm deployed in Mosul, Iraq, about 100 miles south of the border with Turkey.

This very interesting flower appeared here in the month of May when just about every other plant around was dry as a rye crisp from the heat (~105F).

I'd like to identify what it is and learn more about it.

I did not take these pictures, so I can't say for sure how large the flower is, but it appears to be about three inches in diameter in these pictures.

It reminds me a little of thistle flowers I've seen in Oregon, but much larger.

Thank you,
Greg

 

Welcome gddutton.

Looks like a Echinops sp. The flowers I am familiar with have heads about 1" across. Common name Globe thistle.

http://images.google.com/images?q=e...1I7SUNA_en-GB&um=1&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinops

 

Silver surfer is right. The closest match at wikipedia is Echinops adenocaulos. ZipCodeZoo indicates there are 100 species in the genus, wikipedia lists 18. Happy holiday to you.

 

Thanks for the fast response! That very well could be it. Looks like the flower in my picture is in the early stage of blooming. I'm also pleased to see that my initial intuition to refer to it as a thistle was accurate, this being a "globethistle."

I'll keep an eye out for them next year. I'm deployed here until at least September next year so I'm bound to see all kinds of interesting flora. Right now we're headed into the rainy season, so the grasses and wildflowers are coming out. I'm also positioned very close to the Tigris River with wild papyrus growing all over and stretching at least 8 feet tall.

This is very much a Biblically historic place where I am. I'll let you know if I run across any burning bushes that talk.

I just looked at the pics on Google. That's the same flower alright. By the way, here in Northern Iraq the most common trees I see are eucalyptus varieties. Very much the same as those we plant for shade trees in Phoenix where I'm from. They grow about 75'. They are loaded with hundreds if not thousands of birds every night, roosting until morning. Each morning at sunrise, the birds are so loud you have to yell over them to talk.

Happy holidays.

 

At this stage your flower is on its last legs! It is almost gone to seed.
When at its best, it is full of very tiny flowers. See this link.

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...n-gb:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7SUNA_en-GB&sa=N&um=1

 

What is now Iraq was home to Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, and Babylonia, the region fell to Cyrus the Great of Persia (6th century B.C.), Alexander the Great (4th century B.C.), Arabs (7th century), and later to the Ottoman Turks (16th century). It was established as an independent kingdom in 1921 and became a republic after the assassination (1958) of Faisal II. Take care, gddutton. It is indeed a Biblically significant place. Are your fellow deployees conscious of that? I often wonder if the troops there are aware of it, if they work with that consciousness present in their minds at all... not that it changes anything, really, other than being aware of the value of the artifacts and cultures which are being protected and assisted by this effort. At the time of the first recent invasion I found a reprint in a university library of an old account published in the late 18th or early 19th century of a Christian clergyman's foray into what is now Iraq and Iran, via either Syria or Turkey, to do a survey of Christian religions in that area, I am not sure if he was privately or church-supported, and in the account was a fascinating discussion of many varieties of Zoroastrianism, Islam and other more local religions and cultures and practices. As an irrevelant bit of info, the preface to this book noted that the new bride he took with him on this trip from England was a 14 or 15-year old and was, the author said in the text, a very good traveller. The details and degree of travel, I gathered from the preface, were not considered necessarily authentic, but the book nevertheless was fascinating, if possibly not entirely accurate. I unfortunately cannot remember the title, author's name or modern reprinter.

 

Yeah, gddutton, the florets start blooming at the bottom of thistles, then move up. You might be able to get some seed from the lower part of the globe, if you'd like to try spreading it a bit more. I don't know how this one grows, but stuff in this family may form a rosette the first year, with the bloom the next year. I wouldn't want you to be disappointed if you don't see the ones you've sown bloom before you come home.

Interesting descriptions of the area and the flora. Please continue to post what you find of interest there.

 

Yep, but don't take any back to Arizona, in case it turns out to become an invasive weed!

 

Yes, bringing back any plants, seed, flowers, or parts of plants, dried or undried is strictly prohibited. Arizona is already infested with tamarisk trees which I understand originally hopped a ride on cargo containers on ships then trains from India or some other part of Asia back in the early 1800s.
Thanks,
Greg

 

Replying to JanetDoyle: Yes, the military here is very aware of the cultural and historical significance of the region and goes to great lengths to educate and protect it. The military area handbook also discusses in detail the different religions in this part of Iraq. In fact, that's where I learned that there is a large population of Christians here. In addition, the largely intact ruins of 16th century St. Elijah's monastery, the oldest monastery in this entire region, is "within the wire" of Forward Operating Base Marez on the other side of the airstrip from where I am, and it is under the protection of the U.S. military until the transition of authority back to the Iraqis. I will be taking several military and civilian deployees on a tour of the monastery sometime in the next week or two. When I get a chance, I plan to attach a pic of the monastery with grasses and wildflowers growing all around it. You can probably find this photo on Google if I don't get to it first.

If anyone is interested, I would be happy to start a separate thread on flora in Iraq and upload pics as I take them. It will help pass the time here and fulfill an interest of mine as well.

 

"If anyone is interested, I would be happy to start a separate thread on flora in Iraq and upload pics as I take them. It will help pass the time here and fulfill an interest of mine as well.[/QUOTE]"

YES!!

 

I'd be interested in that, certainly -- perhaps in the Biodiversity Appreciation & Discussion forum (that'll give you a chance to show off any critters you might have found too)?

Also, if you're willing, I'd be happy to highlight a photograph or two of yours through Botany Photo of the Day, with your permission. I'd need them slightly larger than what was posted to this thread (800x600 would work).

As an outside possibility, if you have a set of interesting images, we could actually do a series on plants of Iraq for BPotD -- we've never done that before in the nearing-5 years of its existence.

 

I want to say YES!!! I want to see this happen too. What a great idea! We as readers will accept Forum leader Daniel Mosquin's guidance in where to put the posts from Iraq, as well, I am sure, and Daniel suggests the Biodiversity Appreciation & Discussion forum as it could include insects and animals and their interaction with plant life! We just don't want to lose track of the posts from gddutton, but to be able to find them easily and notice them when they are posted! If talking to us gives you any way to fill your r&r time, we are honoured! This whole interaction and this wonderful UBC Gardening Forum is exactly what the Internet a.k.a. World Wide Web is all about and should be all about, and I fell so lucky to be able to be a participant.

 

Yes. Thanks Janet.

 

Well, alrighty then! :-) I'd be happy to contribute. Keep in mind I am a rank amateur, but it will be fun to share. I don't want to get anyone TOO excited. I'm living on a forward operating base, and there are guys right outside the wire who gladly would use me for target practice, so I can't go for strolls or do any bird watching along the Tigris or trodding through the marshes or anything. However, I do have an intense intellectual curiosity (or perhaps ADD) that drives me to stop and smell the roses quite often, even if the rose is a thistle.

The good news is, I work a graveyard shift, so I'm out and about at night quite a bit, and I enjoy beautiful, cool mornings for hours before I go to sleep. My wife is sending me a blacklight/UV LED flashlight that may help me locate critters in the night. We use those in Arizona to spot scorpions (they fluoresce). I haven't seen too many insects yet. We have lots of mosquitos, and what looks like the common housefly here. There's also an interesting little gnat that I've never seen before, and I hear the "Sand Flea" comes out this time of year and they're not too nice. In fact, I'm on doxycycline hyclate every day for malaria prevention. I've also seen about six different kinds of ants.

So far at night I've come across toads hopping around after the rains, which really surprised me given how dry it was prior to the rain. I assume they hybernate in the ground during the drought period. Those are the only amphibians I've seen to-date. There are lots of geckos too, much like the ones we have in Arizona. The climate here is almost identical.

For birds, there is amazing diversity here. The thousands of birds I hear every morning are finches, I believe, based on the beak shape, but they're larger than finches I'm familiar with. They're about the size of a sparrow.

My very compact Canon PowerShot camera goes with me everywhere and it takes fantastic pictures up to 12.1 megapixel. I typically take 800x600 shots, but often shoot a higher resolution/size when I want intricate detail. It also has a macro setting that I haven't played with much yet, so I'm looking forward to using it.

I plan to walk to the east wall of our FOB where I can see papyrus growing tall along the wall. That's probably a stone's throw from the Tigris. In fact, I think there are marshes on the other side. I'm guessing that's the closest place on the FOB where I'll find the most diversity.

Last, please keep in mind I have to be very discreet with the camera. Walking around with a camera is just a bad idea here. I don't want to have my camera seized. Now, if someone sees me taking pictures looking down in the dirt or in the weeds, I doubt anyone would bother me, but it's guaranteed to raise an eyebrow or two. So, we'll just have to see how this goes.

As long as there's interest, and as long as I can keep finding new things to shoot, I'll keep contributing.

Regards,
Greg

 

I meant to mention that there's a crow or raven here that is black and WHITE. I've never seen anything like it anywhere in N. America or Europe.

 

That would be a Hooded Crow of some sort - Corvus cornix. They're quite common in the Middle East and distributed sparsely across central Europe into the British Isles and Scandinavia. In fact, since you're in Iraq, I'd venture that it is the subspecies C. cornix capellanus - an Iraqi Pied Crow.

 

Please pardon my gross typographical error regarding St. Elijah's monastery here: It is a SIXTH Century monastery, not a 16th. I realized my error in a moment of clarity while a 1/2 mile walk away from my computer. I practically ran back to make this correction. While at it, I found a couple articles about the monastery:

http://newsblaze.com/story/20070219075916tsop.nb/topstory.html

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/iraq-monastery.html

 

I am glad someone else has these panics over accuracy! I hate making mistakes of that sort, too. I didn't notice it, although usually I would, being somewhat distracted these days by paperwork preparation for an upcoming condominium AGM. Your website alerts to articles will be eagerly followed by me, and I am sure others. Fascinating place. I have the unfortunate feeling that unless we as newer nations practise more of the right skills at home more publicly and more frequently, we will all become, as our countries age and experience the ups and downs of internal conflict over geography, economy, resources, races and religions, just like the kind of places we are now sending troops out to, to solve these problems.

 

Hello from below the equator. This will be a great thread. Thanks for thinking of it. I was interested to read about your reference to Eucalypts. Do you know why they are using them. Is it shade, for fuel, wind breaks.....
Probaly pushing it a bit but would any one know what types they are planting?

Liz

 

I am interested in food crops, too, and wondering about dates, beans, rice -- when photos first started coming back to us from that area I noticed the [date?] palm groves. Do you ever get a chance to eat local food? Fruit must be grown... apricots?

The papyrus -- it would be fascinating to see that. I saw that being grown for tourists in Egypt. What about roses? I have read that Damascus in Syria is the rose city; I would think there would have been roses in Iraq. Then the "hanging gardens" of Babylon:
From Wikipedia:
The Greek Historian Strabo:

"Babylon, too, lies in a plain; and the circuit of its wall is three hundred and eighty-five stadia. The thickness of its wall is thirty-two feet; the height thereof between the towers is fifty cubits; that of the towers is sixty cubits; the passage on top of the wall is such that four-horse chariots can easily pass one another; and it is on this account that this and the hanging garden are called one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The garden is quadrangular in shape, and each side is four plethra in length. It consists of arched vaults, which are situated, one after another, on checkered, cube-like foundations. The checkered foundations, which are hollowed out, are covered so deep with earth that they admit of the largest of trees, having been constructed of baked brick and asphalt — the foundations themselves and the vaults and the arches. The ascent to the uppermost terrace-roofs is made by a stairway; and alongside these stairs there were screws, through which the water was continually conducted up into the garden from the Euphrates by those appointed for this purpose. For the river, a stadium in width, flows through the middle of the city; and the garden is on the bank of the river."[2]

The Greek Historian Diodorus:

"The Garden was 100 feet (30 m) long by 100 ft wide and built up in tiers so that it resembled a theatre. Vaults had been constructed under the ascending terraces which carried the entire weight of the planted garden; the uppermost vault, which was seventy-five feet high, was the highest part of the garden, which, at this point, was on the same level as the city walls.The roofs of the vaults which supported the garden were constructed of stone beams some sixteen feet long, and over these were laid first a layer of reeds set in thick tar, then two courses of baked brick bonded by cement, and finally a covering of lead to prevent the moisture in the soil penetrating the roof. On top of this roof enough topsoil was heaped to allow the biggest trees to take root. The earth was leveled off and thickly planted with every kind of tree. And since the galleries projected one beyond the other, where they were sunlit, they contained conduits for the water which was raised by pumps in great abundance from the river, though no one outside could see it being done."[3]

 

Thanks everyone for your interest. I will open a new thread under Biodiversity Appreciation & Discussion forum per Daniel Mosquin's suggestion, as soon as I have a few more photos to share.

I went for a very long walk on the base the other day and found a canal that leads downhill to a very large pond with water fowl, frogs, reeds and what I believe is papyrus. It's quite an oasis, an amazing habitat, with algae and all kinds of interesting critters. I had no idea there was such a rich spot down there, and it's only a mile walk from where my living area. I believe it will keep me very occupied for the remainder of the 10 or more months that I expect to be here.

In my short time down there, I saw small frogs, several species of water fowl, and an incredibly beautiful butterfly with a 2" wingspan. I even found paw prints in the mud of what looks like a wildcat. I hear there ocelot and jackal are in this area. I don't think the prints I saw were that of a jackal because there were no claw marks in all but one of the prints.

I brought my camera with me, but wouldn't you know it, the battery was spent after just a few shots. It has lasted an incredibly long time (at least 300 shots--I hadn't charged it since I left Phoenix on 9/11/09) and I thought it still had quite awhile to go, but now I know. I did get pictures of the paw prints, so I will share ASAP. The prints were about 2 to 2.5 inches wide.

I can't wait to go back out and spend much more time down there.

I also found a spot along the perimeter wall where I could hop up and see over the wall. There are miles of farm fields right over the wall from there. That happens to be the spot where the base is closest to the Tigris, and the canal and the pond are in the lowest point on the entire base here. Satellite photos (maps.google.com) reveal thousands of acres of farm crops all along the Tigris River. I'd like to put my camera on a small tripod, affix it to a broom handle, and take video and still shots looking over the wall. Hopefully the Protective Force (contracted Ugandans) who are in the towers near there won't have a problem with that. I'll see if I can get some sort of clearance from the base commander before I try anything like that.

I'll let you know on this thread when I open a new one in the Biodiversity Appreciation & Discussion forum.

Greg

 

Thank you Greg. Good luck getting "tripod" clearance.

 

Take care, you don't want to have some senior officer confine you to inside! What you say about the Tigris River reminds me of the Nile -- a while back I did a boat trip on the Nile in Egypt and saw intensive agriculture along the banks and connecting canals -- lots of green onions and melons. I saw what looked like morning-glories [mainly white] growing around the roadsides. It would be interesting to be doing GIS mapping along these ancient rivers, marking out the different types of agricultural zones and population too -- I imagine it is dense along the rivers. Wheat, barley, etc., must be grown in Iraq. In Egypt the farmers were using cattle and donkey-drawn pumps, to pull the water out of the Nile canals into the irrigation channels in the fields. What kind of fish are in the Tigris? There is a very commonly farmed fish in Asia called Oreochromis niloticus, among other types of tilapia, which are native to the Nile -- do tilapia inhabit the Tigris? Do carp? Any sign of the Damascus rose, Rosa Damascena?

 

All good questions janetdoyle, but I'm afraid any information I'll ever collect about the Tigris will be limited to what I can find online. I don't expect to ever get outside the wire here. 99% of the citizens right over the wall from here are peaceful, but there are still too many unhappy customers out there who would just as soon give me a tour of the bottom of the river as the top. =gd