News and Updates   
Hot News Site Statistics Main WebPages
After several months that the website was closed due to lack of financial support, Spring 2013 brought back to life MaltaWildplants.com. This could only happen thanks to the main sponsors and private companies who placed an advert on the site. Special thanks also go the the Jeremey and White Foundation UK, and some people who gave a generous personal donation.
Last Update:   31 Oct 2013
Families:   127
Species:   1142
Last Species Profile:   Calamintha nepeta
Visitors / Month:   26,000+ (Oct-2013)
Wed Achievments
Check the achievments and promotion of MaltaWildPlants.com [ Here ]

Spot Links
Advert 1: Nature Tours in Malta
Advert 2: Nature in Finland



-->

Thu 31 Oct 2013

Angiosperm Phylogeny Group III Classification.

Finally the species on the website have undegone a revision so as they are classified in families according to the APG III system. Some shall find such changes to be drastic or strange, such as all Chenopodiaceae spp. have been sunken in Amaranthaceae, or Alliaceae spp. in Asparagaceae (now a large family with many ex-families merged in it). Sticking to phylogeny, some species have also changed genus, namely Cremnophyton was found to be genetically similar to Atriplex and similarly Palaeocyanus to Cheirolophus (not lacking controversy by some authors). Vitex is now Lamiaceae and a number of Scrophs (snapdragon-like flowers) are now Plantaginaceae (previosly a family of inconspicuous flowers).

New plant species or images.

This update brings an addition of 8 species which were not listd in the database or they were listed but lacked images because they were not observed by the author due to their rarity in the wild. Such examples are Fumana laevis and Althenia filiformis. The number of plant images on this website is over 10,000!

New fauna species.

Twelve species have been added in the fauna and fungi database making a total of 262 species. Many of these were Diptera spp. Thanks to Mr. Alan Outen who submited images of Synophropsis lauri for this website

Redesign of the Homepage.

The homepage of maltawildplants.com have been redesigned and now the previosly long page have been splitted into tabulated sections for an easier navigation. The vegetation section has been updated thanks to the courtesy of Edwin Lanfranco, while a cool animated slideshow of some wild plants in Malta welcomes the visitor to the homepage. The credits page is now incorporated in the home page and there is an important site interpretation page which explains how to use and interpret the contents of the website.

Endemics page.

A new page giving basic information about the endemic and subendemic vascular plants of the Maltese islands has been created in this update. It give a quick glance of all the 40+ endemic or sub-endemic species for Malta and includes a picture, plant-family, frequency ,conservation status and other information as well a link to a photo gallery. This section is found in the homepage.

Maltese names.

Over 100 species have been added (or corrected) their Maltese names. If some species have no Maltese name and you want to suggest one, please email or use the information submission form.

Author Publications

During 2013, the following botaical work have been published by the author of this website (Stephen Mifsud) in peer reviewed scientific journals.

  1. Mifsud, S. & Hamilton, P. (Aug 2013) : "PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS FROM LONG-TERM STUDIES OF GLADIOLUS L. (IRIDACEAE) FOR THE MALTESE ISLANDS" Webbia: Journal of Plant Taxonomy and Geography, Vol.68:1 pp51-56, US. (DOI: 10.1080/00837792.2013.779817)

  2. Casha, A. & Mifsud, S. (Aug 2013) : "ALTHENIA ORIENTALIS (TZVELEV) GARCIA-MUR. & TALAVERA (ZANICHELLIACEAE DUM.): AN ADDITION TO THE MALTESE FLORA (CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN) " Webbia: Journal of Plant Taxonomy and Geography, Vol.68:1 pp57-61, US.

  3. Mifsud, S. (Aug 2013) : "DISTRIBUTION OF SOME RARE OR ENDEMIC CHASMOPHYTIC AND RUPESTRAL SPECIES GROWING ALONG THE COASTAL CLIFFS OF THE MALTESE ISLANDS " Webbia: Journal of Plant Taxonomy and Geography, Vol.68:1: pp35-50

  4. Mifsud, S. & Lewis, L. (May 2013) : "RECENT OBSERVATIONS ON THE OPHRYS OF MALTA AND GOZO: ADDENDUM " Journal Europäischer Orchideen , 45 (1): 105-120, Germany


Detailed Plant Profile

A detailed plant profile of this new endemic Orchid species - Ophrys iricolor subsp. hospitalis (Delforge) Mifsud & Lewis have been put on the website

Minor things

Several pages or code were revised and fixed for some bugs, namely the search species page, the correction and seed quotation form, the extrernal links section in detailed profiles, the sponsors/adverts page and the author publication page.

May 2013

Recovered from Coma

Lack of time and funds had slowed down the development of the website in 2011 and 2012. The author was getting more involved in scientific research resulting in discoveries of plants of scientific value (check publications) and other bread-winning tasks. Eventually the website could not be maintained anymore and was closed in Summer 2012. Thanks to support and requests by numerous visitors, both locally and abroad, this website came back to life in May 2013. Special thanks must go to the Malta Tourism Authority who gave a generous sponsor of which funds would be used for basic maintinence, updating and running of the website. Also thanks to those who supported this website either by placing a web advert or giving a personal donation.

New skin

The plant profile pages now have a new colour theme (skin) based on brown, beige, grey and pistaccio colours instead of the varied pastel colours that have been conserved since the creation of the website back in 2002. Hope these colours suits better. A number of profile sections such as the purchase form, and correction form have been redisgned and are more neat.

External links in the plant profiles

This updates brings a total of 18 external links for each species viewed on this website. Most of these links are top-notched plant databases such as internet search engines (web/graphic) distribution, nomenclature, encyclpedias or accessions to botanical gardens (e.g. RBGE, Kew, Vienna virtual herbarium). They are very convenient becasue with a click they give immediately the search results of the particular species in the corresponding database (without entering any search keywords).

Minor updates

In this period, about 20 rare species have been found and their photos have been added to the respective plant profiles. About another 1500 photos have been included during 2011 and 2012, bringing the number of photos on maltawildplants.com to over 10,000. SOme bugs have been fixed, namely the non working page links of plant profile pages and a number of broken links. The main page have been slightly modified and for example the main menu links of the website have been placed near the animation. The sponsor page was updated accordigly to show the new sponsors and webadverts for 2013-2014.

Malta Fungi and Fauna (The Opistokonts!)

In 2012 a great effort was given to the fungi and fauna page. The amount of species have been increased by 3 times during this period and now there are a nice collection of 250 species. Special thanks to Owen Mifsud and Charles Vincenti for supplying their photos for this nice collection.

Author Publications

The following work have been published by the author of this website (Stephen Mifsud) in peer reviewed scientific journals during the years 2011 and 2012.

  1. Mifsud, S. (May 2012) : "FUMANA LAEVIS (CAV.) PAU (CISTACEAE): NEW TO THE FLORA OF MALTA AND CONSIDERATIONS ON FUMANA (DUNAL) SPACH FROM MALTESE FLORA" Webbia, 67(1): 101-107. 2012

  2. F. Crocetta, S. Mifsud, P. Paolini, J. Piscopo and P. J. Schembri (2011) : " NEW RECORDS OF THE GENUS PACHYGRAPSUS (CRUSTACEA: DECAPODA) FROM THE CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN SEA WITH A REVIEW OF ITS MEDITERRANEAN ZOOGEOGRAPHY" Mediterranean Marine Science, Medit. Mar. Sci., 12/1, 2011

  3. Mifsud, S. & Lewis, L. (Nov 2011) : "RECENT OBSERVATIONS ON OPHRYS SPECIES AND HYBRIDS OF THE MALTESE ARCHIPELAGO" Journal Europäischer Orchideen, 43 (3): 609-650. Germany.

Sun 09 Jan 2011

Plant Life form (Raunkier system)

The life form of every species have been included in this update. The Raunki�r system is used for categorizing plants according their life-form, that is, the overall structure and habit the assume (tree, shrub, bulbous perennial, annual herb, etc.). It was invented by Christen C. Raunki�r. This detail is both shown in the main botanical index and in the plant profile.

Protection and Red Data book Status

The legal protection status according LN311/2006 and LN200/2011, and their status in the National Red Data Book (Lanfranco, 1989) have now been revised and updated for all species. These protected species have been selected by professionals and experts becasue they are endangered either on a National scale (= very rare) or even on an International scale (may face extinction) such as The Sundarac gum tree (national tree of Malta) -Tetraclinis articulata

Detailed Plant Profiles

In this update, a detailed plant profile for the species Calamintha nepeta (Lesser calamint) has been included in this update. This is a rather uknown aromatic species with a number of virtues such as medicinal and culinary uses.

Author Publications

During 2010, the following work have been published by the author of this website (Stephen Mifsud). Although the date shows Dec 2009, the journal was launched and published in March 2010. This year, 3 to 5 papers are in progress to be published, including very rare or new species for the Maltese Islands.

  1. Mifsud Stephen (2009). "ZANNICHELLIA MAJOR BOENN. EX RCHB. � A FIRST RECORD OF A NON-ENDEMIC SPECIES OF ZANNICHELLIA L. (FAM. ZANNICHELLIACEAE DUM.) FROM THE MALTESE ISLANDS", The Central Mediterranean Naturalist 5(1): 1-6 Malta, Dec 2009
    Abstract: The first record of Zannichellia major Boenn. ex Rchb. is reported from the Maltese islands. Detailed morphological comparison of this population with the endemic and frequent Zannichellia melitensis Brullo, Giusso & Lanfranco and other monoecious Zannichellia species is given. Distribution of this species is discussed.



  2. Mifsud Stephen (2009). "UPDATE OF THE MALTESE FLORA (CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN) INCLUDING VERY RARE SPECIES OR SPECIES THOUGHT TO BE EXTINCT FROM MAINLAND MALTA OR ITS ISLANDS", The Central Mediterranean Naturalist 5(1): 7-16 Malta, Dec 2009
    Abstract: Rediscovery of Lotus halophilus from mainland Malta (presumed to be found only in the island of Comino), Xanthium strumarium (presumed extinct), first record of Myrtus commuis from the island of Gozo and the very rare plant Asplenium trcihomanes are reported from the Maltese Islands. An account about the each population and an updated distribution of the species in Malta is given.



  3. Mifsud Stephen (2009). "REDISCOVERY AND PRESENT DISTRIBUTION OF VALANTIA HISPIDA L. (FAM. RUBIACEAE) IN THE MALTESE ISLANDS", The Central Mediterranean Naturalist 5(1): 17-23 Malta, Dec 2009
    Abstract: Valantia hispida L. is an indigenous species presumed extinct from the Maltese islands due to lack of any substantiated records for more than 130 years. The rediscovery of this species is reported. An account of the population found in the South East area of the island of Gozo is given. Morphological differences between V. hispida L. and the frequent V. muralis L. are illustrated. The taxon V. muralis var. hirsuta reported from Malta in old literature is discussed.

New species and photos in the database

Few species have been included in this web update, making a total number of 1116 species that are native or found naturalised in the wild (including casual alien species too). For the moment, about 120 species of grasses are not included in the website. This may take place during this year. Please note that this website mainly focuses on species that are found 'freely' in the wild. Hence, it does not include strict horticultural or agricultural species that will fail to grow on themselves without the intervention of man (sowing, irrigation, caring, etc). 890 species are illustrated with any of the 9700+ photos in this website.

Profile structure and coding

What appears least for the user, but quite important for the administrator is the coding responsible for structuring the website. There was a good amount of work behind the curtains in this regards, which improve the structure of the plant profiles. Due to lack of time (for family and financial issues), progress on the website is slow, but at least, it is still going on slowly. This website is entirely voulunteer work during the last 9 years to highlight the beauty and importance of our flora so as it is more appreciated and safeguarded by the public. Nevertheless, I want to thank all supporters who have written comments or given small donations for this work. Thanks to Dr. Owen Mifsud for data inputting and beta testing. Anyone who would like to be involved in this website (voulunteer work) can contact me - info@maltawildplants.com

13 Sep 2010

More plant species featured

In this update, some 40 new species have been included with the previous 840 making a total of about 880 illustrated species. At this stage, many of the species added would often be scarce, rare or very species for the Maltese islands. In fact this update is featuring species like Rosa gallica, Rosa canina, Serapias bergonii, Physalis peruviana, Zannichellia major, Medicago sativa and ALL the wild ferns.

Photographic update

This update also bring you some extra 480 images which brings the image count of this database to over 9000!

The MWP forum

Greetings to the forum members who participate and make the forum intersting with their articles, floristic/faunistic discussions, image sharing and identification requests. I will do my best to maintain this forum as it a pleasure and often addictive!

10 Apr 2010

Minor Update

A minor update of Maltawildplants.com was released to address some bug fixes resulting from a previous major update in Jan 2010. Thanks to all visitors who pointed some of the bugs. This update also includes some 200 new images of plants of which included are some very rare species like Asplenium marinum, Arbuto unedo, Ophrys lupercalis and Tulipa australis.

Least but not least, this update brings the first images of the new orchid which Stephen Mifsud discovered and described from Malta - Ophrys bombyliflora f. parviflora S. Mifsud.

Tue 05 Jan 2010

Redesign of the Webpage Title Bar and Logo

The uppermost title bar has been redesigned to offer the following advantages and features:
    - The height has been reduced almost by half to accomodate more web content and follow current web-design standards.
    - The logo image changes everyday to give a more dynamic appearance.
    - On the left side of the logo image is a small thumbnail of a wild plant which changes every page visit.
    - On the right side of the logo image are a group of important links. These are a search free text in maltawildplants.com (or internet), homepage, A-Z index, News & Updates and Contact administrator link.

Redesign of the Main Index

The main index has been redesigned so as it holds 6 parameters instead of 4. These paramaters are:
    - The nativity status in Malta
    - If the species is rare in Malta
    - If the species is considered a medicinal one (needs further updating...)
    - If the species is protected by Law (according Legal Notice 311 of 2006)
    - If the species is listed in the Red Data Book (Lanfranco, 1989)
    - The Life Form of the plant (needs further updating...)


The main synonym have been moved to be displayed under the species name instead in a mouse-over bubble. Movong the mouse over the icons gives more details in a pop-up bubble. The type of plant profile (detailed or short) and the number of images in the corresponding profile is given too. Below is a snapshot of how it looks.



Redesign of the A-Z Index page

This have been recoded so one can search or list with great ease any species in this database. One can search for Latin, English or Maltese plants names, either with a strating letter or even with free text, (Eg "Ophrys" or "italica" or "alb". Check the new index in [this link]

Detailed Plant Profiles

It has been long that a detailed plant profile have been written for the website. In this update, a detailed plant profile for the species Tropaeolum majus - an invasive alien but with many culinary uses has been included in this update

Renaming

With great effort, all 8000+ images in the database have been renamed with their actual species name, followed by their corresponding reference code.

Aizoaceae

The species of the Aizoaceae family has been revised and now they should be identified correctly.

Other Minor Updates

- Some 200 photos have been added to plant profiles.
- Few photos of rare plants (6 species) which previously were not illustrated, have been included in this update.
- More internal code revision and improvemnet was carried out.
- Two more additional links were added in every short profile. These links follows the corresponding plant in the GBIF and Encyclopedia of Life websites.
- There is a handy link in the contents menu of every species profile which links back to the corresponding family index. See snapshot image below:



Mon 13 July 2009

General Update

During these last 6 months, a lot of energy was spent in fieldwork research to find rare and very species of plants. Results were very good and some 25 rare or very plants were found by the author of this website and thereafter illustrated here. The last examples include the native Cyperus fuscus (presumed extinct after the last known population was destroyed) and Xanthium spinosum (Extinct and not seen for many decades). Hence in this update one should find some 800 new images of which a good number are of rare plants in the Maltese islands.

Sat 28 Mar 2009

First set of Fungi Stamps from Malta

For the first time in history, Maltapost have issued a set of stamps related to fungi (mushrooms) from the Maltese islands, thanks to the participation of Maltawildplants.com which offered the photos and some basic research about the 5 species of fungi that have been selected for this issue. The species are:

- Laetiporus sulphureus
- Inonotus indicus
- Montagnea arenaria
- Suillus collinitus
- Pleurotus eryngii

More images of these fungi can be found in tha Fungi and Fauna page of the website. Greeting to Daniel Mangani who co-ordinated this set of photos. You may read more about this on the [MaltaPost News]

First record of a new form of Iris pseudopumila (sensu Fiori)

This species is known from Apulia, Sicily and the Maltese islands in 4 forms, the violet form (f. violaceae), the yellow form (f. lutea), the white form (f. lutescens) and the mixed violet and yellow form (f. discolor) In Malta, only the violaceae and discolor was recorded, the latter being more rare on our islands. In February 2009, a small population from Gozo was found with pure yellow flowers hence the first record of the forma lutea. This population was however found without flowers in 2000 by Shirley Micallef, but the colour was revealed by Stephen Mifsud this year. Images and more info can be found on the Iris pseudopumila profile

Tue 06 Jan 2009

More and more wild plants

Time always gets less available nowadays, but this update brings up the number of plant species, reaching for the first time over a thousand, precisely 1006 plant species. 762 species are displayed with photographs. Several other photos need to be sorted, amongst of which are about 100 species of Grasses (Poaceae family) still in the pipeline. Finally, a good number of photos have been added and now this website displays a stunning 7000+ photographs of the flora of Malta. A number plant species which are never met in the wild (that is not even as escapes) have been removed (eg the Pansy and Stephanotis).

Page Updates

Several pages have been improved and bug-fixed. These include:


1. The Visitor Comments Page : Improved anti-spam coding. About 30 comments a day were being received, and from July to Dec 2008, no comments have been reviewed and included in this page.

2. Image Upload Page: The personal reference code have been replaced by a graphic password.

3. The Index of plant according flower colours: This has been improved drastically though still needs to be improved...

4. The Index of plants according to their Family: Given high priority and now should now be without any mistakes or broken links.

5. Plant profiles: Numerous plant pages have been corrected following reports from visitors using the correction form .

6. Fungi and Fauna Page: The number of species has increased to 140, including a number of endemics.

First records of plant species on the Maltese Islands

During 2008, 7 plant species have been discovered by the author as first records for the Maltese flora. These include:

Dactyloctenium aegyptium (Casual alien ?)
Amaranthus muricatus (Casual alien ?)
Fumaria reuteri (Naturalised)
Spirodela oligorrhiza (Naturalised)
Ophrys lupercalis (Native)
Ophrys lojaconoi (Native)
Ophrys phryganae (Native)


What's planned for 2009

Include more detailed plant profiles (which have been halted during most of 2008). More search facilities and options (E.g. search tree species, native species, and improved A-Z Index) Hopefully photos of those very rare species, of course if they will be found in the wild Include the Poaceae (Grass) family which comprises more than 100 species (with photos!) are ready to be put online A New Forum platform (a bit risky though!) More Fungi and fauna species if time is available

Your support

Your support to this website is invaluable to keep it running and updates. You can help in several ways namely

1: Give us a donation.
2: Email us were you find mistakes or broken links (See preview here.)
3: Submit photos of plants that we do not have. (E.g. Atractylis_cancellata).
4: Participate and share your knowledge on the MWP forum.
5: Support the sponsors and advertisement.

Sat 16 Feb 2008

The Discovery of 2 new plant species published on the Times of Malta

The Times of Malta were proud to publish an article about my latest discoveries in the Flora of Malta on Friday 1st February. The article was about the finding of 2 new plant species (new records) for the Maltese islands that is Dactyloctenium aegyptium and Amaranthus muricatus. It was also mentioned the new populations of the very rare Asplenium trichomanes and yellow flower form of Iris pseudopumila

One can read the article online [Click here]

New Plant Profiles

Here is a list of new species included in the website from the last update:

Spiranthes spiralis
Elatine gussonei
Scrophularia auriculata
Triglochin bulbosa subsp. laxiflora

Now the number of plant species profiled on this website has reached 156

Mon 31 Dec 2007

New Plant Profiles

Here is a list of new species included in the website from the last update:

Rosmarinus officinalis
Sideritis romana
Micromeria microphylla
Prasium majus
Salvia verbenaca
Stachys ocymastrum
Teucrium fruticans
Teucrium flavum
Myrtus communis
Oxalis fontana
Plumbago europaea
Polygonum_maritimum

Website database driven conversion (PHP/MySQL)

These couple of months, intensive work has been made to convert the entire website into a database driven module that is PHP/MySQL. This gives numerous advantages in maintaining, controling and updating the entire webste since this syteme provides a faster method to create new plant profiles or web contents, automatic sorting of indexes, better and customised search facilities, more reliable web design, better control of the web coding, easy to add new features and many other stuff which is too technical to describe here. All coding by the author himself - Stephen Mifsud, and data input greatly aided by the co-partner Owen Mifsud and my wife Malin Mifsud. As an example one can enter the fauna page and observe the different search criteria and sorting of species. If sponsors are found for 2008, some 700-800 plant species found in Malta will be illustrated.

Wed 10 Oct 2007

New plant profile entries

Here is a list of new species included in the website from the last update:

Trifolium pratense   -   An extremely rare plant, last seen in the 19th century.
Agave sisalana
Agave americana
Agave americana var. marginata
Nigella damascena
Ranunculus muricatus
Ranunculus ficaria
Ranunculus macrophyllus
Ranunculus tricophyllus

During the hot and dry summer, outdoor research at 35C+ of temperature is out of question. Considerable time was instead dedicated to improve several important pages of the website, including new features which makes both research and identification tasks much easier. Below are the most important examples.

The Fungi and Fauna Section

There was a lot of work involved in the webpage dedicated to the Fungi and Fauna of the Maltese islands. Some 60 species have been included during the summer months, with participation of several helpers and experts alike. Further more, the page was recorded from scratch so as on can select to view a certain class of organisms (eg Lizards, or Spiders only) from the whole list. This is extremely useful for research purposes so as to compare a certain group of organisms pertaining to the same Class or Family. Special thanks to David Dandria, Jonathn Agius and Owen Mifsud for their expertise.

Organisation of the Flower-Colour indexes

The 12 flower colour indexes has been totally re-designed from scratch so as now, the corresponding plant species of a certain flower-colour are first sorted first by their botanical family, and then by alphabetical order of the species. Again, this is an important improvement both for research studies and also for the amateur who wants to identify his plant, since now, a group of plants of the same flower colour and Family are ordered next to each other. Check the following examples:

1) Wild plants with Green flowers and plants with inconspicuous flowers
2) Wild plants with Blue flowers
3) Wild plants with Yellow flowers

MaltaWildplants.com on the Grip Magazine (MIA)

The editor of the Grip magazine informed me with pleasure to feature Maltawildplants.com in the July/August issue of the Grip. Some 40,000 copies are published and handed to the tourists visiting our islands. Check the Promotion and achievements page for more details.

MaltaWildplants.com in the book "Nature in Gozo" (BirdLife)

A newly published book by John J. Borg, Edwin Lanfranco and Joe Sultana called Nature in Gozo features 3 sections dedicated to the natural heritage of Gozo. The first section describes the ecology and habitats of Gozo, while the other 2 treats the flora and fauna of Gozo. The flora section consists 27 photographs taken from Maltawildplants.com (also stated in the book) mostly being the more rare type of plants. Check more details on [ this link ]

Upgrade of the comments page

Some 170+ comments have been written during the lifetime of the website. This webpage was becoming too much populated, and it has been re-designed so that the comments can be filtered by a couple of criteria such as year, country of visitor, and type of comment (educational, research, touristic, etc.). I take the opportunity to thank all those visitors who dedicated some minutes to write a comment, which will definitely boost the motivation for more work on maltawildplants.com. Click here to write a comment or view the new comments page.

Visitor record in June and July

An incredible 40,000 visitors have entered some page or other of MaltaWildplants.com. Click here for proof !

Change of URL of all plant profiles and other pages.

Please note that all plant profiles have been updated to php format, and hence the extension has changed from .html to .php. The .html file still exists and it redirects you to the new link automatically. The advantages of php will be revealed later !

Auxiliary websites

A number of auxiliary websites have been launched during the Summer. These are:

OstroBothniaNature.com
Web Gallery of the nature of East Finland (Osterbotten region).

Gozochurches.com
Website about the churches and chapels of Gozo - maintained by my wife, Malin Mifsud.

MirandaMifsud.com
Website dedicated to my daughter.



Sat 23rd Jun 2007

New plant profile entries

A large effort has been made to include many profiles as possible. This effort is a result of some donators who contributed a small some of money to the project [thank you very much], to those companies who advertise on this site and last but not least to the main sponsors supporting this project who finance 40% of the total costs. Please visit the sponsors and adverts page [ here ].

Here is a list of new species included in the site during these couple of weeks from the last update.

Euphorbia helioscopia
Euphorbia paralias
Anagyris foetida
Iris sicula
Romulea ramiflora
Romulea rollii
Juncus acutus
Ajuga iva
Ajuga iva subsp. pseudoiva
Mentha pulegium
Phlomis fruticosa
Erodium malacoides
Geranium dissectum
Geranium molle
Geranium rotundifolium
Rhodalsine geniculata
Matthiola tricuspidata

Fri 12 Apr 2007

New plant profile entries

The following plant profiles has been added thanks to the sponsors supporting this project.
Andrachne telephioides
Euphorbia characias
Euphorbia exigua subsp. pycnophylla
Callitriche truncata
Cynoglossum creticum

Sat 24 Mar 2007

MaltaWildPlants Sponsors

After a lot of hard work and plenty of time dedication, at last, Maltawildplants.com has found 2 supporting sponsors. MiddleSea Insurance plc at the end of January and Strickland Foundation in Spring have offered the requested sponsor, that is of 20% each of the totla project costs. I take the opportunity to thank again these sponsors who evaluated the importance and validity of such an environmental project and its impact on education, tourism and awareness.

Other 3 such sponsors are needed so as this project is funded completely and at the moment more work and meetings are taking place.

New plant profile entries

The following plant profiles has been added thanks to the sponsors supporting this project.
Ophrys caesiella - a sub endemic and rare Orchid found in 2 or 3 localities.
Senecio leucanthemifolius - a species mostly found in Gozo at coastal areas.
Arum italicum - a short profile on this large Arum.
Zannichellia melitensis - a short profile on a rock pool endemic plant.

Sun 31 Dec 2006

Brief News During the last 6 months

 

> My first newborn
There has been very little progress of plant profiles and new material in the website during the last 4-5 months. This was partly due the birth of my first baby (Miranda) born on the 14th September 2006. I had to take care of my pregnant wife and newborn.

> Sponsorship and grants required
Secondly, most of the little time available was spent to create documents, letters, presentations, and attend several meetings and talks in relation to obtaining grants (sponsorships) so as this project can take a different dimension and would feature some 100 plants per year. During this process I get to know numerous friendly people, some in the scene of local botany, politics and management.

> EU grants for this project had to be refused
In September/October I was absorbed by an offer to join a consortium which were applying grants from EU for a multi-national digital educational project in EU. I was chosen to represent Malta, but the buorocracy of the EU required that I had to be represented by an official organisation, institute or the Government. I tried all corners to find one but was impossible to deal this in a short period of time that there was available, but I can frankly say that I did not find much help from those organisation in Malta that probably could and should have helped me. Never mind...

> Website Code improvement
I spent some time to re-organise the code of the website and for example the picture webpages are server-side coded (shtml) which there is no need to go into technical reasons. I have also enhanced the code so my images and pages will get a better ranking on google.

> Quitting my work
After an unfair dealing with the Government work management, on 1st October I had to stop working, and so now I am 'unemployed'. At this moment I will not give any details, and if I will, these would be published on a local paper or TV station when time is ripe!)

> Financial support
In order to get some financial support from Maltawildplants.com, I had to implement some cheap online contribution fees for accessing certain documents and webpages of Maltawildplants.com. Examples include the References page, the high resolution images and printing of full profiles. I also included the option of voluntary online donations. This included lot of time to deal with the bank and money digital gateways. I had also to include the google ads for a very little income.

> Getting involved in MaltaWildPlants.com
Most of August was dedicated in coding and building an interactive form so as any visitor viewing plant profiles of MaltaWildPlants.com can input his contribution and so help the website getting more accurate and interesting. The form is divided into 3 sections:

1) Adding extra information to a particular plant profile (full reference given)
2) Submitting new locations of particular species.
3) Report mistakes and errors (spelling, botanical, html code, layout, etc) in any profile.


I invite you to use these forms in the case you note some error or want to include extra information's or locations about the plant species included in the site.

This was a list of events in a nutshell during the last 5 months.

Thu, 20 July 2006

Website code redisgned to CSS.

Most html code of the website has been re-designed so as to incorporate Cascading Style Sheet code. The big difference is more in the technical aspect of the coding, but one could note numerous small enhancments in the general graphical layout of the site (eg: more tidy, organised tables, shorter files, less bugs, and a 3d-ish graphical layout.) It is also more compatible with other browsers like FireFox, Opera and IE for macintosh platforms. The recoding took about 30 hours of work.

If you note some layout errors please report them directly to me by email for immediate corrections. Thanks!

New profiles

After my marriage and due to the pregnancy of my wife, together with problems at work, the time and motivation from the last update were much reduced. Again, full profiles has not been placed on the site, though there is a number of short profiles which has been included. These are:

Calamintha nepeta
Thymbra capitata
Cheirolophus crassifolius (Palaeocyanus crassifolius)
Euphorbia pinea
Euphorbia paralias
Ornithogalum arabicum
Ornithogalum narbonense
Ornithogalum divergens
Elatine gussoneii
Nothoscordum borbonicum
Allium dentiferum
Allium subhirsutum
Allium sphaerocephalon
Allium nigrum
Allium roseum
Allium melitense
Allium commutatum


Maltawildplants.com facing Problems

With the birth of my first child in September, my wife will stop working and I have to return to work to earn money for my family. This would simply mean much less time for the website, and if the progress is very slow (As I expect to be), I feel that there is no need to keep sustaining the website. It would be a big loss and pity but my family is first priority. Obtaining financial support in form of advertising/sponsorship from companies might save this project!

The Promotion and Contribution Page

This page has been updated with the latest events with regards its contribution to other companies and promotional recommendations received.

The Copyright Page

This page has been also been updated with new terms and conditions regarding the copyright on the material of the website. Please find time to read this page again before pressing "Cntr+V". that is taking material from the site into your own projects.

Sun, 15 May 2006

Plant Profile previews (short profiles)

From this update, some plant profiles are presented as a short version or preview instead of a full plant profile. This will contain the 'nomenclature' and 'plant description' parts but will not contain the 'additional info', 'botanical data' and 'photogallery'. This option was taken to increase the number of profiles per unit time since each will take about 15% of the time of a full plant profile. The following short profiles are included from last update:

Asteriscus spinosus
Echium italicum
Cistus creticus
Euphorbia peploides
Trifolium stellatum
Erodium moschatum
Geranium purpureum
Moraea sisyrinchium
Romulea columnae
Anagallis foemina
Anagallis arvensis
Adonis microcarpa
Anemone coronaria
Ranunculus paludosus
Ranunculus saniculifolius

New full plant profile entries

The following profiles has been added from last update:
Linaria pseudolaxiflora
Ophrys melitensis
Muscari commutatum
Ophrys eleonorae

Dichotomous keys for the Genera of the plant Families

In the Botanical Index page has a new feature; one of the icons under the family name is a key. On clicking on this a dichotomous key of the Genera of the corresponding Family is given inside a new window. This helps to distinguish which genus of the corresponding family a plant belongs to. The keys are taken from a book by Haslam et al. - " A Flora of the Maltese islands", 1979. This is the only literature in Malta which have published keys for plant species and Genera.

A new volunteer helping in the site

Owen Mifsud is a regular member of the MaltaWildPlants.com Forum and good friend of mine. He showed interest in the website for long time, and now he will be helping me in the website by creating few preview (short) plant profiles in his little free time. Thanks immensely for this help Owen. Hope he does not get bored up too quickly - html is not so much fun!

More photos added

A number of photos are added regularly to existent plant profiles. These are either meant to replace old ones or more often adding with the plant profile. For instance, numerous photos of fruit and seeds have been added to several plant profiles which lacked them.

Activities for the Malta Wild Plants Forum Members

There were two organized outing activities for the members of the forum. One was at Wied hanzira / Mgarr ix-Xini on the 26th of March and the other at Comino on the 22nd of April. Read a full report about each on the forum corresponding topic (Outings and Activities)

Sun, 12 Feb 2006

Malta Wild Plants Forum

During this period, most of the work was dedicated to manage, organise, enhance and encourage participation of the online forum of the website. Several new topic categories has been created. There was also organized an outing activity for the members of the forum at Selmun/Mgiebah coast on the 10th of February.

New plant profile entries

The following profiles has been added from last update:
Iris pseudopumila
Barlia robertiana
Ophrys mesaritica
Ophrys fusca
Orchis collina
Bituminaria bituminosa

Fri, 23 Dec 2005

Website winning an International Award

My hard work, determination and effort that I put in creating and updating the site have resulted in winning an INTERNATIONAL AWARD. Yes, my website have won an international award from Actualidad 21st century, an award giving company leader in publishing and promotions.

The award was given to my main website where the wild plants website is a section of it. I am very glad and proud about it. Will include this fact in the promotion page very soon.

Tables of the flowering Period of plants

A table of flowering periods of the plants found on the site has been created and found on the site. This can be reached from every page via the top menu bar ('Docs' menu bar) or from every plant profile where the caption "Flowering Time" in the Description section of the profile is now linked to this page. You can have a look by [clicking here...]

New plant profile entries

There has been a slow progress in profiles during the first half of the year due to my Diploma in Agriculture course at the University and my wedding later in June/July. To compensate for this, I have worked hard to put as much as possible plant profile during the ending rest of the year. The following profiles has been added from last update:

Periploca angustifolia
Ballota nigra subsp uncinata
Hyoscyamus albus
Smilax aspera
Clematis cirrhosa

New hardware and accessories

A new Digital Camera has been purchased to produce photos o higher quality and capture finer detail. The choice fell on a Canon Powershot A620. The 5 year old graphics card was also replaced by an ATI X700 to increase speed and efficiency on handling and processing photos and graphic images. Finally, a high spec USB scanner was purchased to scan better detail of smaller plant specimen name flower parts, hairs and sees (look example here...). The optical resolution of this scanner (a Canon 9950F) is up to 4800 x 9600dpi, much higher from the prev scanner which was 1200x1200 dpi

Maltawildplants.com organized its first official activity

MWP have organised its first activity for the members of the forum. An interesting and delightful walk at the coast of Qammieh, Mellieha. Read a full activity report on the forum (topic: Forum Members Outings and Activities)

Forum software update

The Forum software is updated from Version 2.0.16 to 2.0.18. There is a long list of new features and bug fixes so as the forum is improved.

Mon, 31 Oct 2005

Maltawildplants.com accomplish its 3rd year today

MaltaWildPlants.com was officially launched on the 31st October 2002 and so today it is the site's 3rd birthday. I really wished to tell you that to speed up its progress the site have got some sponsors such as from the Government or private sector but unfortunately the deals and meetings are still going on. I have contacted Farsons, Vodaphone, HSBC, MEPA and the Government but no definite replies yet, everything is in a pending point and awaiting replies.

However I am still able going to give you a pleasant surprise as the tradition of every birthday of the site. I have created a page which features a photogallery of several living species found in the wild life of Malta, mostly insects and lizards. (Birds and fish are difficult to photograph, while not much mammals are found in the wild).

You can access this page by clicking here , or from the homepage main menu, or from the topbar menu of every page (select Misc/wildnature). Each photo can be enlarged by clicking on the large thumbnail image and further details about the species are also given.

New plant profile entries

Dittrichia viscosa

Scilla autumnalis photos

About 15 photos / scanned images has been added for the low growing monocot plant - Scilla autumnalis which previously had only a few (about 9). This Liliaceae plant is found in garigue or steppe such as Dingli cliffs and since of its smallness it is quite difficult to spot. To see the plant profile and the new photos click [ here ]

Colchicum cupanii photos

About 10 photos / scanned images has been added for the lilac flowered monocot plant - Colchicum cupanii This small plant is found flowering in garigues at this time of the year. To see the plant profile and the new photos click [ here ]

Updates in the Botanical Data Section

The parameter "Outgrowing Projections" in the Stem part of the botanical data has been thouroughly revised and now there is a general descriptive image for almost all profiles. The parameter name will be also soon changed to Stem Surface instead of outgrowing projections.

Similarly, the parameter "Stamen" in the Flower part of the botanical data has been thouroughly revised and now, not only the number of stamens is indicated, but also the type of arrangement of the stamens in the flower. Each plant profile has been updated and all include a graphical illustration.

Revision of English

All plant profiles and main pages are currently being revised for the English grammar and spelling mistakes. A special thanks go to Owen Mifsud (Malta) who offered on his own will to collaborate and do this task for the benefit of a better readability of the pages and plant profiles of MaltaWildPlants.com. - Thank very much you Owen!

Visitor Comments and website popularity.

This month (October 2005), MaltaWildPlants.com have received an elevated number of comments from visitors of the site. I have also omitted some comments because they where very short and simple (such as "congratulations...." and "keep it up...." ). These comments are very important for me and keeps the spirit high for me to keep updating and working on the website in my free time and expenses. Sponsorships would help me to speed up the work, since I would dedicate more time on this popular site.

Speaking about popularity, the number of unique visitors has also risen drastically, now reaching about 1000 per month (30 daily) who have accessed the main index page. Note that these are unique visitors not hits. If you refresh or re-enter the page the counter will not increase! Many keywords related to species of plants found in Malta rank high (1-20) in google, yahoo and other search engines.

Sun, 18 Sep 2005

The MaltaWildplants.com Forum

A very important and interesting chapter has been added in the project. This is an interactive, live, message posting forum related to the Malta wild flora and general wild life of Malta and its environment. The forum can be reached on the URL : www.maltawildplants.com/forum/ or simply click the link found in every page of the site at the upper navigation bar just under the maltawildplants logo or at the very bottom of the page.

The forum is something that is maintained interesting and running by you visitors. The more participating visitors there are, the better it grows. The scope is to increase the awareness of the general Maltese public towards the environment especially to the defenceless wild flora, with the hope that in the future their will a mentality of respect and love towards the environment and hence making Malta a more beautiful place to live in. So this forum is an opportunity for each one of us to contribute a little of our time and make it an interesting and lively forum

Registration is free of charge (takes 2 mins) and has various topics of discussion. One can post an article, write a personal idea of all the things that can be improved, submit questions, reply to questions submitted by others, report illegal stuff related to the environment, submit any nature-related photos, and also participating in anything regarding the wildlife of Malta and its habitat.
[ Click here to register to the forum NOW !! ]

New plant profile entries

Xanthium strumarium
Chrozophora tinctoria
Kickxia spuria

Wed, 31 Aug 2005

Photo of seeds under Microscope

About 12 photos showing spectacular seeds under the light microscope (top illumination) has been added to several plant profiles (eg Silene colorata ) More such photos will be included in new plant profiles and existent ones as well.

New plant profile entries

Chiliadenus bocconei (An endemic plant to Malta)
Inula crithmoides

Credit Page

A dedicated page has been created for most of the credits and acknowledgments involved to build this educative website. [Click here]

Introduction page

The introduction and main menu page has been redesigned and enhanced by implementing large, animatednavigation buttons and a table describing the requirements needed to view the website.

Nomenclature Section

The Nomenclature section of each plant profile has been modified so as the common (English) name and Maltese name of the plant are nearer to the species name. The closely related species parameter has been removed since it was not much useful. The synonym is now moved at the end of the list.

Graphical enhancements and navigation bars

Most of the work involved in this update was that of optimizing the html code and correct coding errors. These things cannot be seen. However some things which can be seen and are of great help to the viewer of this site are the implementation of 2 sets of navigational bars (navbars) found in all pages.

At the bottom of each webpage there is a small general navbar which directs you to the most important pages of the site as shown below.

At each plant profile page, there has been added a navbar at the end of each section which directs the visitor to the other sections of the plant profile page. This reduces scrolling throughout the long page and so a faster navigation.

Note that for full functionality of these navbars and other features in the website, you must allow blocked content when MS Internet explorer 6 (Service pack 2) brings a security warning message on opening the page :


This annoyance can be prevented by putting www.maltawildplants.com as trusted website in Internet explorer/InternetOption/ Security Tab

Mon, 01 Aug 2005

Update Delay 3

Hopefully this is the last delay for the maltawildplants.com website. Just a week after finishing the exams (17th June) I travelled to Finland where I got married with my Finnish wife. Following the wedding we had a 4 week honeymoon (Latvia and Estonia) and now we are back to Malta.

Future of the website

Now I am trying to do my best to have an appointment with the Minister of Agriculture and Environment and so as to have this work on the website as my full-time work rather than do it slowly during my free time. Latest news is that a friend who met the minister is in favour of my proposal (which I have already written him my intentions)If this happens it would mean a big boost to the progress of the site.

Index of Wild plants by colour of flower

Despite I was abroad on honeymoon, I have worked on the site and created the much awaited and requested Index by of plants by their colour. First one enters in a simple page to select the basic colour of the flower (red, blue, yellow etc). On clicking the requested colour, a gallery of flower images with the Latin, Maltese and english names will be displayed up. One should easily identify the flower he is searching because the images are quite large (450 pixels wide). The colour index can be accessed from the home page, the main plant index and from every webpage via the top menu bar just under the maltawildplants logo (Contents/Flower colour Index)

Sat, 12 Jun 2005

Update Delay 2

As expected, there has been another update delay of a 3 month period due to the fact that I spent most of the time studying and preparing for the final examinations for the course of Diploma in Agriculture at the University of Malta. The course was completed on the 10th of June. However, there is going to be another delay of 6 weeks! Now I will be flying to Finland for my wedding and will return working back on the project on the 27th of July. Despite having few time to dedicate during the past months, there have been some interesting updates in the website as described below.

New plant profile entries

Cerinthe major

Maltese diacritics

Maltese names of plants in the main index have been edited so that they are shown with their native diacritics, as written in the Maltese language. (dotted C, dotted G, hyphened H, etc)

List of Maltese plant names

The contents and search page now includes also the list of plants in the database/website in Maltese, together with that in English and Latin (scientific) ones. The Maltese names also include language diacritics. Hence now one can search for plants from their corresponding Scientific, English/common or Maltese names listed in alphabetical order.

Plant Authority

Another new piece of information that is included in every plant profile is the Author of the plant. In the nomenclature part, the species name of the plant is followed by the authority abbreviation, for example: Senecio vulgaris L. where ' L.' stands for Carl von Linn� the famous god-father botanist who first described the plant. The full name of the author, his citizenship and living date is additionally given below the species name in a new data row called ' Author(s) ' All this is indicated in the image below by red arrows:

Sat, 19 Mar 2005

Update delay 1

There has been a long delay for this update to take place, that is nearly 3 months! The reason was that during the end of December, I was for a Xmas holiday in Finland. Then most of January till the first week of February I had to prepare and make some important exams related with this website. I spent the rest of February taking photos of plants already in the website so as to replace old ones or some which where not mine, or just to add with the collection. About 80 new photos of 10 different plants have been taken and included in the site. In March I had finally some time to include a new plant (the rare plant - BumbleBee Orchid). The next 3 months do not look very promising either because I have little time to dedicate for the website. There are more exams to do and travelling abroad.

Sponsorship or special arrangement to work entirely on this project

I am trying to make special arrangements with the Government to have the opportunity to 'work' on this project for a few years. Thus, I would be able to complete the website project before. At this pace of about 20 plants per year, this project is going to take many years, but if I will have all the time to work entirely on it with all my dedication, it could be finished even in 5 years time. I have been trying to make an appointment with the Minister of Rural Affairs and Environment from October 2004, but till present date I have not been given a date!!!

Another important fact is that a certain Dr. Charles Grech was very interested in this project and we have become partners so as to work together and promote this project on a National level. The first aim is to get permission to work entirely on this project, and not only in my free time. This would be really good news for the website and all you visitors who send me numerous email asking for a plant to be described in the site. If you are in a position to make pressure to the Maltese Government so as this project is given space to accelerate its progress, I and all green-fingered would be very grateful.

New plant profile entries

Ophrys bombyliflora (Bumblebee orchid)

New photos

Several photos have been added and I have also replaced old ones with better quality photos for the following plant profiles:
Silene colorata
Silene vulgaris
Papaver somniferum
Oxalis pes-caprae
Diplotaxis erucoides
Sinapis alba
Raphanus raphanistrum
Sonchus oleraceus
Bellis annua
Orchis conica

Each new photo has an underlining text which describes the photo or gives specific information about it. After all this work all plant profiles have high resolution photos and almost all (except for illustration images and pollen photos) are taken by myself from Malta or Gozo. There is approx 1400 photos in the website now!

New Equipment and use of expensive optical instruments

In January I have bought the Canon A95 so as to improve the quality of the photos. Now the image resolution is increased from 4 to 5Mpix, and quality is slightly better too. I also have made contacts with a Laboratory to use their Stereo microscope connected to a digital camera so as to take magnified images such as of pollen and tiny seeds.

Sun, 20 Dec 2004

New plant profile entries

Senecio vulgaris

New photos

Several photos have been added for the plant profile of Raphanus raphanistrum and Lobularia maritima. So much photos have been added or replaced that the photogalleries have been re-made. Each photo has an underlining text which describes the photo or gives specific information about it.

Promotion Page

A new page has been created in the website. This is a promotional page where it shows and describes where my work is being used or promoted to. This is usually the use of photo or information in other projects such as books, graphic designs, Educational CDs, research, etc. Click here to visit this page and find out where www.maltawildplants.com had given contribution to.

Wed, 24 Nov 2004

New plant profile entries

Scilla autumnalis

New photos

Several photos have been added for the plant profile of Crocus longiflorus (total remake of the photos in situ), Ranunculus bullatus, Bellis annua and 2 photos for Urginea maritima (Photos of leaves). Each photo has an underlining text which describes the photo or gives specific information about it.

Plant Illustrations and their References

About 15 new plant illustrations have been added in the Photo Gallery section of various plants and all present illustrations are now appropriately referenced by an accompanying link in the picture text so as one could know the source of the illustration. If there are copyright issues about these images please contact me; I have not seen any warnings or corresponding text saying that these images cannot be used, especially as in this case that is for educational purposes.

Sun, 31 Oct 2004

Happy Birthday to MaltaWildPlants.com

Today, 31st October, is the 2nd year from the official launch of this website. Plenty of work has been going on during these 24 months to produce this educational, well-organised and highly acclaimed (click here) web site about the wild plants of Malta. All photography, research and programming is done during my free time and with my own photographic and computer equipment. There are also charges to pay to keep the website online, such as web-hosting and domain issuing. Anyone interested to sponsor this project please contact me. It is also a good way to advert your products via this popular website by means of an advertising linkable animated banner. Well, as an anniversary gift, maltawildplants.com is happy to announce the following improvements / new things that took place from the last update, 6 weeks ago. In the meantime happy birthday to www.maltawildplants.com (2yrs old).

New Title Logo

Many have noticed that the logo of "Marz-Kreations Web site" became missing for most of September and October. This was because a new and dedicated logo for Maltawildplants was being processed and now has been introduced in this site. As you can see all web pages and plant profiles of MaltaWildPlants.com have a nice title logo at the top of the webpage. The photo was taken from Saqqajja, Rabat. The fonts background consists of a sunset at Dingli. All editing and photography is my own work. I wanted to leave this logo for the anniversary of the site.

Herbal encyclopedia

As a gift from maltawildplants.com anniversary, I am putting online on maltawildplants.com a complete encyclopedia of Herbal medicine. It is called Pharmacology and Therapeutics
by H.W. Felter and from the few glances I gave, it is a very comprehensive document. I further split the book in chapters (according to the alphabet) for quick access and reading of the documents which are in pdf format. The full book is also given. Click here to visit this page

Corrections of English Grammar and Spelling

Most of September was dedicated to revise all the plant profiles one by one and correct any grammatical or spelling mistakes in the text, and also correcting the few botanical errors that where found. This was a very tough and time consuming job, but now that this task is completed, the readability of the profiles is now enhanced.

Code improving and cleaning

Another hard job was to clean the html coding and convert all '' tags to cascade style sheets (.css) type. This makes the plant profiles occupy less space and memory and hence faster to download. This may not be noticed by the average user, but html programmer may note the effort it is needed to convert at least 43 files of long html code manually

Nomenclature section 1

There has been added a new parameter in the nomenclature table. All plant profiles has been added the 'Synonym' parameter which states the names of the plant (if any) which where previously given to the plant. Some synonyms are still used nowadays in certain parts of the world so it is an important piece of information that the synonyms of the plant are given.

Nomenclature section 2

The family name parameter in the nomenclature section has been enhanced. The english family name has been added and on clicking on the family name, a new window with detailed characteristics about the plant's family is given. This text uses advanced botanical terminology so the glossary page is handy to learn what certain terms mean.

Removing photos and images that were not mine

A number of images which were not of my own origin have been either removed or replaced with my own ones. The only images that are currently on the site and not my own are either plant illustrations which do not have any copyright issues, or some magnified images of pollen of which full credit is given. These will also be replaced once I will have access to a microscope at work. 6 months ago the microbiology section moved to a new premise and our Chemistry lab have no microscope available.

Botanical Data changes

Several changes have been made to the Botanical Data section for all plant profiles. These changes include:
1) Renaming of " Outward projections " instead of "Hair or thorns"
2) Renaming of " Fruit type" instead of "Fruit Shape"
3) Renaming of " Fruit colour" instead of "Fruit colour when ripe"
4) Replaced parameter: "Ovary location" instead of "Petal shape"
5) Replaced parameter: "Stem Branching" instead of "Stem cross sectional shape"
6) Changed format of the "Scent" parameter

New Thumbnail Images

About 12 to 15 new thumbnail images have been added up in the botanical data section, such as thumbnail images for plant venation, fruit capsules, ovary type, leaf shape, subterranean parts, etc

New high resolution photos

A large number of old, low resolution photos of inferior quality have been replaced by larger photos of higher quality and resolution. Some of the plants profiles which enjoyed such modifications are: Diplotaxis tenuifolia, Diplotaxis erocoides, Glebionis coronaria, Aster squamatus, Conyza bonariensis, Pancratium maritimum, and Brassica rapa. It is planned that for November, 3 plant profiles will have a total make-up of the photo gallery by replacing old photos with superior quality ones.

New plant profile entries

Narcissus serotinus

Sun, 12 Sep 2004

New plant profile entries

Pancratium maritimum
Urginea maritima

News

This August I was for a 3 week vacation in Finland and so the work on this site was halted and progress slowed down. Additionally, the site is being revised and so not much time is reserved for making new profiles for the upcoming update. All 42 plant profiles are carefully corrected for grammar mistakes, coding errors, bad links, navigation buttons and several other improvements and modifications, including also some new high resolution photos and possibly a new site logo.

Sat, 31 Jul 2004

New plant profile entries

Ecballium elaterium
Hypericum triquetrifolium

New photos

New high resolution photos in the following plant profiles has been replaced or added in the photo gallery.
Conyza bonariensis
Papaver somniferum (Seeds pic)
Heliotropium europaeum
Acanthus mollis(Seeds Pic)

www.maltawildplants.com independent domain

The website www.maltawildplants.com is finally on its own independent domain and not anymore showing www.marz-kreations.com/ in the browser's address bar. All directory structures, files and pages are situated at http://www.maltawildplants.com/filenames....

Tue, 12 Jul 2004

New plant profile entries

Acanthus mollis
Anchusa italica
Lactusa serriola

Sun, 23 May 2004

New plant profile entries

Misopates orontium
Sisymbrium officinale
Convolvulus elegantissimus (Convolvulus althaeoides subsp tenuissimus)

New photos

Few more photos have been added for the profile of Papaver rhoeas (Red poppy) and many photos for Convolvulus arvensis (Lesser bindweed) including new description text for each photo and few corrections.

Basic Flower Type

The "Basic Flower Type" parameter in the botanical data section has been updated. Several polypetalous and gamosepalous data were replaced by more precise and descriptive data like cross shape, tubular shape, Salver shape, Trumpet shape and more.

Thu, 06 May 2004

New plant profile entries

Antirrhinum tortuosum
Antirrhinum siculum
Anacamptis pyramidalis

New photos

Few more photos have been added for the following profiles: Papaver somniferum (Opium poppy), Sinapis alba (White mustard), Borago officinalis (Common borage) and Asphodelus aestivus (Common Asphodel)

pH Indicator profile data

Results of the colour change of flower extracts with the pH range has been obtained for the plant : Gladiolus italicus

Tue, 13 April 2004

Navigation Menu bar

Almost every page (including the plant profiles) has a useful navigational menu bar under the 'Wild Plants of Malta' logo as shown below. This is an easy navigational menu so that one can reach most of the important pages of the site from any page.

WILD PLANTS OF MALTA

 
 
 


Modification in the Botanical Data Table in plant profiles

The last row of the botanical data table in plant profiles has been changed as follows:
Instead of Bud Shape, Fruit shape and Other notes, now there is Fruit Shape, Fruit colour, Underground parts and Other notes.
The change has been updated in all plant profiles. The Bud shape parameter has been removed since it was not much an important characteristic and instead the plant's subterranean parts parameter has been introduced, since it provides more interesting information. This will indicate if the plant has taproots, bulbs, corms, rhizomes, etc.

Visitor Comments

2 new comments from visitors living in UK and Germany have been added in the Visitor comments page. Additionally an online form have been included in this page so that one can submit his/her comment on the spot without accessing the email program.

New high quality photos

Some low quality old photos have been replaced by high resolution and professional photos taken recently with a better camera. This applies for the following plant profiles: Papaver hybridum (Rough poppy) and Papaver rhoeas (Red Poppy)

New plant profile entries

Gladiolus italicus

Wed, 31 March 2004

pH Indicator profile data

Results of the colour change of flower extracts with the pH range has been obtained for two plants. These are: Asphodelus aestivus, Erica multiflora

New plant profile entries

Borago officinalis
Asphodelus fistulosus

Sun, 29 February 2004

New High Resolution Photos

In January a new 4Mp Camera, together with a tripod, special lenses and filters were purchased. This will now be used to taker better quality and higher resolution photos of plants. Most of January was dedicated for taking several high quality photos of the already existent profiles. It is impossible to mention all specific photos one by one here, but you can just browse around the profiles and note for any improved photos. The disadvantage is that the jpg images will be larger in size, and so slower to download and be displayed on screen.

pH Indicator profile data

Results of the colour change of flower extracts with the pH range has been obtained for three plants. These are: Sinapis alba, Arisarum vulgare, Silene sericea

Updates in the WildPlants Family Main Index

The family index main page has been updated by including a drop down menu so that one can quickly go to the most important pages of the website without having to go to the main menu. This is found immediately under the list of family names.

Another small addition is the introduction of music. 4 classical music tracks are introduced at the bottom of the page Index page. One can select any music file between the 4 songs available. PS always stop the currently playing music before starting a new one.

New Visitor Comment

Several comments have been received, but since lacking time, only one comment has been added up in the Visitors' comments page.

New plant profile entries

Erica multiflora
Asphodelus aestivus
Orchis conica

Sat, 10 January 2004

General Index and Search Page

A new and important page has been created - a general index of all plants and a local search option. There are 2 index lists which contains all the plants present in the database sorted alphabetically. One index contains the Latin names of the plants and the other index lists the English and common names. There is also a very important open text search engine; just type the word you want to search and you get results from the pages found on this website only. You can search for example "lanceolate leaves" to have results of all pages which bears the term "lanceolate leaves", and hence see what plants in the database have such type of leaves.

Plant Profile Description and User Instructions page

This is another new page which describes Almost all parts found in every plant profile. It gives a detailed description on every parameter present in a plant profile. It is very easy to use; a dummy plant profile page is displayed and when the mouse is hovered on several parts of the profile, a popup box will automatically appear and gives description of that part in the profile. For example if you would want to know more info about the part "Sources in Malta", you hover the mouse over this part and the corresponding information will popup.

Closely related species

In all plant profiles, a new parameter called closely related species was added in the nomenclature section. This gives other plant species names which are similar or related and so easily mistaken with the plant profiled.

Submit Information

In all plant profiles, a submit Info link is included in the profile contents list. if someone, while reading the profile, wants to add more info, or disagrees with something, one can click this link and submit his information to me by email. All entries which will be displayed with the corresponding plant profile will be credited.

More modifications and changes

All medicinal properties and plant vs plant comparisons are all transformed into a general more presentable table form.

All profiles were well revised and corrected for errraneous info and spelling / grammar mistakes.

All profiles had the 'short hand' (Script type) font in the "Additional information" section changed to normal sans font for better readability.

The Marz-Kreations title bar (very top of every page) was reduced in size for better general appearance of the pages.

Some profiles were added with more external links for further information and new photos were added.

Page Transition effects

A cute transition effect is introduced to many web pages. Now, when changing from one page to another the page changes with a special visual effect. It is an experimental feature, and if I get response that it gives problems, it will be removed.

Wed, 17 December 2003

Enhanced layout and display of the Wild Main index

There have been some nice modifications in the wild plants index which many would really like. First of all, many of the table backgrounds have texture graphics for a really eye-catching graphical layout. Another and more important modification is the inclusion of 4 icons at the bottom of the Genus Title name. The legend of the icons is as follows:

Further detailed information about the genus
Detailed B&W botanical illustration of the key and characteristic parts of the plants in this Genus
Large, high resolution, colourful image of typical plant species in the Genus


New plant profile entries

Ranunculus bullatus
Crocus longiflorus

Mon, 01 December 2003

New plant profile entry

Arisarum vulgare
Bellis sylvestris

Font modification

The font in the 'Additional information' section is changed to Short hand in all profiles. It is more feasible to read.

New photos and modifications

Silene sericea :    Added photos of seeds, and seed pods.

Mon, 17 November 2003

Site becomes legally under copyright and data protection.

Finally, today I have made all necessary modifications and arrangements so that all my material and work on www.maltawildplants.com (Online database of Wild Plants of Malta and Gozo) are under copyright and data protection.

Now everyone who needs to use some material (such as for example some photos) from the site, has to write an email or letter to me so that I grant him consent and permission, depending for what purpose the material is used. If it is for educational purposes, I may grant permission without any problems, but for profitable use then I have to talk with my lawyer. You can read details about this in the www.maltawildplants copyright page. Be sure that you read this page before starting to copy and paste at will!!! There are hefty fines for those who are caught abusing.

Disclaimer notice

I also took advice from my lawyer and wrote a short disclaimer notice, that briefly says that I have no responsibility if someone gets ill or suffers some sort of damage occurs due to the use of information from my website. There is edible and medicinal content in many plant profiles and I am not responsible for any adverse effects caused by someone who tries eating a particular plant. The disclaimer notice can be also read in the copyright page (click here)

New plant profile entry

Bellis sylvestris

New photos and modifications

Brassica Rapa :    Added photos of seeds, buds ad seedlings
Lobularia maritima:    Added photos of seeds

Fri, 31 October 2003

Online Database of the Maltese Wild Plants has its first BIRTHDAY !!!

Yes exactly on the 31st of October, this project celebrates its 1 year birthday. In these last 12 months I did not manage to include much plant profiles as I expected, just 18 species! That is because a considerable amount of time has been spent to modify and improve the plant profile layout for several times. Also new extra pages (like botanical definitions, visitor comments, update page, etc, ) and updating of the existent profiles with corrections, new photos and new data has taken considerable time.

Fortunately, I can say now loud and clear that the plant profile display is very good and not much more critical improvements or new additions are necessary. All important extra pages have been realised too and so now I can spend most of my time to include as much plant profiles as possible.

So here are some things that I plan to make for the project next year:

1) Buy a new digital camera for better macro photos and high resolution, quality photos. Maybe I buy the Sony DSC-F828 8-Mpix 7x zoom camera in next December. Money is the problem !!!

2) More photos of pollen under microscope.

3) Try to protect the photos from being ripped by unknown people and use them without my permission.

4) Introduce and sign my site to many renowned botanical sites and search engines.

5) And finally a wonderful piece of news:- I managed to reduce my working hours from 40 to 20 per week so that I have much more free time to dedicate to this project. It means half salary, but when there is passion, love is blind. So this year I promise many plant profiles to be added in the database. Hope God bless me and gives me strength.

Sunday 26 October 2003

New exciting Comment from Scandinavia

A wonderful email was received from Erik Ljungstrand, secretary of the Botanical Society of Sweden. He found my site very useful for his little project and congratulated me for my site. Click here to go to the visitor comments page and read his message!

News and Updates page

This is a new page where one can find the latest updates, modifications and the new plant profiles added in. It was possible to make a 'simple' back log of all events and updates which have taken place to the site this year and these are shown in the news page (the one you are reading now). New updates will be more detailed. Please note the menu at the top of the page which are very handy and useful to browse this page and the whole site.

Improved display and eye-catching graphics

As you may noticed, there has been a considerable amount of work done to improve the graphical display of some pages, namely the main page, comments page, and botanical glossary page. All pages have improved fonts system so that almost all text is shown large and clear on every PC configuration. If your text appears small please select [View] -> [Text size] -> [larger] from the Internet Explorer menu. All this is done as a birthday present for the site since in few days time it will have its first birthday!!!Cheers www.maltawildplants.com :-)


Fri 24 October 2003

New plant profile entries

Aster squamatus

Website was down

My website was down and could not be displayed on internet for a period of about 10 days between 13th and 23rd October. This was because I changed my website host provide from atlantic.net back to FeaturePrice.com. It took quite some time to set up everything and upload all files (1Gigabyte of data) back on the server. Now everything is running smooth and in my opinion faster.

Fri, 27 September, 2003

Meta Tags

The meta tags of all pages in the maltawilplants.com have been modified and updated so that it describes the plant profiles and other pages accurately and so are efficiently found by search engines. Tough but necessary work!

Photos Opens in a new Window

Another time-consuming and boring task has been achieved on all plant profiles. Every photo will now open up in a new dedicated window. The window contains the name of the plant, a short description of the photo, and copyright notes. This makes it much more easier to browse and watch photos in one window, and in the same time continue reading information on the plant profile original page.

Spelling Corrections

Checked and corrected many spelling and grammar mistakes of most plant profiles so that they have a better readability.

Sat, 06 September, 2003

New dedicated domain launched

Today it has been officially launched a dedicated domain for my project of wild plants. The domain name is www.maltawildplants.com when typing this url on the browser, the main page of the Malta Wild plants is displayed and there is no need anymore of typing marz-kreations/Malt.... etc etc. The domain was bought from dotregisrar.com for a period of one year.

Fri, 29 August, 2003

New plant profile entries

Conyza bonariensis,
Heliotropium europaeum

Exciting Comments

The head of the Biology department of the High Junior College, Mr. Joseph DeGiovanni, and a Univ. lecturer in Environmental Sciences in Malta, Sandro Lanfranco have personally congratulated me for my excellent work regards my project of the on-line database of Maltese Wild Plants. I have been really excited and uplifted after I read his comments. You can read their comments here or from the guest book

Plant profile updates and modifications

There have been modifications and updates in the following plants; Glebionis (Chyrsanthemum) coronaria, Convolvulus arvensis, and Diplotaxis tenuifolia. Such updates include mainly addition of new pictures, such as those of pollen. There was also an update of a species name and now the flower which previously was referred to as Chrysanthemum coronarium is now appropriately named as Glebionis coronaria (Thanks to Sandro Lanfranco for this info!)

Wed, 03 June, 2003

New plant profile entries

Silene vulgaris

Fri, 02 May, 2003

New plant profile entries

Papaver somniferum,
Raphanus raphanistrum

Fri, 20 March, 2003

New plant profile entries

Sonchus oleraceus,
Silene sericea,
Papaver hybridum

Plant profile Job description and time involvement

I have included a descriptive document of the work involved in making a plant profile, explaining what is done in every part and roughly the time taken for each part.(click here to read)

New Photos for existent profiles

I added some photos in the plant profiles of the Crown daisy and Common poppy.

Sun, 19 January, 2003

Plant Profile new look

The Botanical data section of the wild plants pages has been redesigned so that the information is much more compact, neat, and more professionally displayed. All the plant profiles have been given the new design. Now the data is presented over 3 or 4 columns across rather line by line, and so more info can be seen on the screen, and the page gets considerably shorter.

New plant profile entries

Sinapis alba,
Oxalis pes-caprae

Botanical Definitions Page

This page contains a glossary for terms used in Botany I have made this Glossary page with description of large number of botanical terms so that one can easily find out what a botanical word means by quickly browsing the list and finding the equivalent definition. The link for this page is found in the Main Page and at the bottom of every plant profile page.

Pollen Photos

Photos of pollen of some flowers were photographed under the microscope at the Lab were I work. The microscope is not equipped with camera, so I had to make photos directly from the eyepiece. In other words,don't expect clear photo quality White Mustard, Sweet Alyssum, and Crown Daisy are the flowers which their pollen has been photographed.

Sun, 08 December, 2002

New plant profile entries

Lobularia maritima,
Brassica rapa spp. sylvestris,
Diplotaxis tenuifolia
Diplotaxis erucoides

Thu, 31 October, 2002

Official Launching Date

Today is the Official date when this Online Database of the Maltese Wild Plants has been launched online on the internet. This is an online database of various flowering plants which grow naturally in Malta including plant nomenclature, botanical data, description, additional information (eg: medicinal uses), photo gallery, pH Indicator properties of the flower extract, and related links. At the moment just 2 flowers included but more will be added within the next update. To my concern, this is the most professional and informative page regards Maltese wild plants on the internet.

First plants of the database

Glebionis coronaria (Chrysanthemum coronarium),
Papaver rhoeas,
Convolvulus arvensis