[JTh]

I see a lot of plants around here when we are walking in the hills above over house in Halkidiki, and many of them are unknown to me. I would very much appreciate if any of you could help me with identifying these two bushes, which are both in flower. It’s very dry here now, there has been no rain at all the last 2-3 months; these two bushes grow in very poor, rocky soil.

The first one (two first photos) I have seen is a small bush, less than 0,5 m tall, with only a few very slender branches; there are few, narrow, up to two cm long leaves and lots of strange flowers. The flowers are tiny, around 3 mm in diameter, goblet-shaped on short stalks, with three ‘petals’, you really can’t see many details except in a macro photo, the colour goes from green to brownish yellow.


_5042194.jpg Unknown bush by Jorun Tharaldsen, on Flickr


_5042182.jpg by Jorun Tharaldsen, on Flickr

The second bush is obviously in the family Fabaceae, but I have not been able to find anything resembling this one in any of my books. It is much-branched, not spiny, those I have seen have been up to 1-1.5 m. When they are young, they are nice and round and pale green, almost silvery. The leaves are trifoliate at the base of young bushes, but narrow, almost like pine needles when the bush gets bigger and woody, the leaves and branches are slightly hairy. The yellow flowers are tiny, they grow in clusters of five, 7-8 mm long and around 3 mm across. Again hard to see any details with the naked eye, but hopefully somebody recognizes them in the photos here. I don't know what the pods are like.


P5049745.jpg Unknown bush by Jorun Tharaldsen, on Flickr


P5049746.jpg Unidentified bush by Jorun Tharaldsen, on Flickr


_5052295_97 gul ertebusk.jpg by Jorun Tharaldsen, on Flickr

It’s quite attractive, at least when it is small, I wouldn’t mind trying growing it; I suppose it would need some regular pruning to keep the nice, round shape.

[Fleur Pavlidis]

Your third photo looks like Anthyllis hermanniae.

[JTh]

Thank you, Fleur, I think you are right! I guess the description in the books didn't quite correspond to what I see, they are not spiny, but some of the dead, old branches feel spiky.
Now I'm waiting for help with the other plant...

[Fleur Pavlidis]

Try Ruta.

[JTh]

Thank you for trying, Fleur, but no similarities with Ruta, except that the flowers are yellow. I kept looking and finally found the answer, Osyris alba, which is in the santalwood family. The photo in Flowers of Greece (Lafranchis & Sfikas) was better than the drawing in Wild Flowers of the Mediterranean (Blamey & Grey-Wilson), but the description in the latter was much better. The branch in my photos had only male flowers, which are born in small clusters, while the female are solitary and borne on separate plants.  The flowers are exactly as described, yellowish, sweat-scented, three-lobed and small (3-4 mm).