European Spider Crab - Cyprus

Cyprus has a typical Mediterranean style climate of mild winters and hot summers. Rain occurs during the winter months and summers are dry. Snowfall is limited to the Troodos Mountains and does not fall in significant amounts. These climate patterns place Cyprus into a crisis of having to face a future water shortage.

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Maja squinado - The European spider crab is a migratory crab found throughout the Mediterranean Sea. Newly moulted adults begin a migration during the autumn and winter months from coastal to deeper waters. This migration is based more on retreating from the colder shallow waters and not based on finding food sources. Only two crabs from the family Majidae have any commercial importance: the Canadian snow crab and the European spider crab. This has caused both species to suffer declining numbers.

Castor Plant - Cyprus

Ricinus communis -  Native to the Mediterranean Basin, Eastern Africa, and India, the seeds from the castor plant are used to make castor oil. Being a surculose plant, it is able to grow new plants through basal shoots produced from the roots of the mother plant. This allows new plants to grow further away from the source. The castor plant is a shrub, but can grow to 12 meters. Shrubs differ from trees in one crucial form; shrubs having multiple trunks growing from the ground, trees have one. 

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Occupying a strategic area in the Eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus has been the center of attention for several centuries. The Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Venetians, French, and British struggled and fought to control Cyprus. Since 1974, Cyprus has been partitioned; Northern Cyprus is controlled by Turkey and an independent Southern Cyprus retains close ties to Greece. The northern partition of Cyprus is not recognized as a sovereign entity.