Stalking the Elusive “Colliflower” Now’s the time to see wildflowers in the woods
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- Published on Friday, 30 August 2013 10:57
- Written by John Pint
August and September mark the “high season” for wildflower watching in this part of Jalisco and one of the best places to see them near Guadalajara is the Cerro de Colli, which lies just west of town, next to the Periférico (Beltway). This is the closest “corner” of the Primavera Forest to the big city.
I had the good fortune to visit Colli with Peace Corps Volunteer Barbara Dye recently and after hiking up the hillside only ten minutes, I was convinced that Colli is surely the most practical place for tapatíos to go flower hunting. But let me warn you, if a Barbara Dye happens to be leading the hike, you’d better have a mighty quick shutter finger because this outdoor enthusiast moves from flower to flower faster than a hummingbird.
We had barely started up the trail when what did Barbara spot but a Dahlia, Mexico’s National flower. This was a Scarlet-Flowered Dahlia (Dahlia coccinea) which was discovered in the Mexican mountains and named for the Swedish botanist Anders Dahl, who thought their tubers would make a good alternative to potatoes. According to Green Deane, author of Eat the Weeds, “Dahlias as food had some success in France and the Mediterranean area, but their slightly bitter flavor (then) kept them from going mainstream.”
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