Endemic species on the Cap d'Antibes

Today we made a simple picnic, drove to the Garoupe, and did the coastal walk around the Cap d'Antibes. The weather was, for the first time this year, absolutely gorgeous. The sea was moved by a slow swell which made for photogenic churning froth against the rocks, to set off that unlikely but true mediterranean blue. The rocks and fissures were clothed in the best of bloom: the wonderful violet pink of the ficoids - like miniature sunflowers on acid, the mauve of the, well, malvaceas, the yellowish, soapy white of the impossibly fragrant cryptosporum bushes. It was a botanical riot...

But there is one ground-hugging bloom which is endemic to the coastal path, indeed it colonises the whole area. It is generally to be found in recesses and in the shade, but occasionally it is out there, in the open. It is a self-fertiliser with a big white corolla of petals, irresistible to flying insects, visible from many metres away. There is no visible stalk. Its scent frequently vanquishes the cryptosporum, and it survives drought, sun, salt, wind - anything nature can throw at it. It must be the most successful species on the cape. A weed which will have to be brought under control.

It forms a shameful tapestry anywhere homo azuriensis, particularly in extended family groups, comes into contact with nature. Its name: used toilet paper. Its anchorage into the soil: human excrement.