Where have all the flowers gone?

Have you ever heard of a queen that mates once and remains fertile all her life? And that the social structure the queen rules over consists of hundreds of female workers?

This matriarchal society lives in a hive.

A beehive can house up to 60,000 bees and the queen can lay as many as 2,000 eggs.

These fascinating details are presented in straightforward and simple language making it a joy to glide through as you come across these gems in a new book by Paul Portelli called Habitat: Malta's Natural Heritage.

With our seemingly eternal building construction delirium that has contaminated these islands, the range bees can travel is becoming smaller at an alarming rate. This is mainly because most of the fields and gardens that once provided a safe haven for a multitude of eco systems and the creatures that thrived in them have been turned into concrete structures.

As if to herald a call to arms to back the exertions of eco crusaders in their bid to safeguard what remains of the natural heritage, Paul Portelli has put together his observations noted over decades of empirical study, into a book underpinning the rich array of flora and fauna on these islands.

One has to see the mystifying colours that wild plants and trees produce to be awed at what we are obliterating in the acerbic wake of the building boom.

Even the names of wild plants have a musical ring to them. Take, for example, such names as Wolfbane, Great Sage, Pennyroyal, Sicilian Snapdragon and Sea Squill.

The book moves on to insects and reptiles such as the Western Whip Snake and amphibians such as the Painted Frog.

Mr Portelli's book features articles the author has been writing in The Times since June 1996. Each tree, plant and creature including birds that migrate over Malta is illustrated in full colour.

"This book is not a scientific text. It is written for people with little or no knowledge of nature but who are ready to be amazed by the variety of Maltese fauna and flora," the author writes in a preface to the book.

Habitat: Malta's Natural Heritage will be launched this Friday at 5 p.m. during the Malta Book Fair at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, Valletta and will be on sale from the ARCO stand.

The fair runs between today and Sunday.