Corsican Plantes des Maquis

Sticky fleabane (Inula viscosa). Author’s photographs

While used in recent years for perfumes, biocosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and medical research, the plants of the maquis are deeply ingrained in Corsica’s folklore as a source of food, medicine, and cultural identity. They also add beauty and wildlife value to my own Seattle garden.

The bees were a surprise. For years, I had been fascinated by the wild plants of Corsica’s “maquis” countryside, a scruffy scrubland that covers approximately twenty percent of this Mediterranean island. Watching them thrive in decomposed granite soils under a constant sun convinced me that they were the ultimate in fragrant, drought-tolerant, low-maintenance plants. After experimenting with their hardiness in Seattle, I quickly became dependent on their scents to get me through our gray winter days. Once mature, they offered an unexpected bonus: my yard became a haven for a multitude of bees and other pollen eaters. This was a surprise, because bees are not especially noticeable in the Corsican maquis, and many of these visitors were types I had never seen in Seattle, all cr...