ANTHEMIS MELANOLEPIS

Family:- COMPOSITAE/Sect. COTA

Common Name:- None

Synonym:- None

Meaning:- Anthemis (Gr) Flowery.

Melanolepis (L) With black scales

General description:- Annual, sparsely hairy or subglabrous, divaricate branches,

decumbent, along the ground from the base.

Stems:-

1) Erect or ascending, branched above to give a flat-topped inflorescence.

Leaves:-

1) Sessile, oblong, 1- to 2-pinnatipartite.

2) Lobes, ovate to oblong, mucronate.

Flowers:-

1) Peduncles, not or slightly clavate in fruit.

2) Involucre, nearly flat.

3) Bracts, subglabrous, the outer ovate-lanceolate, acute, the others oblong-

lanceolate, margins scarious and acute or a subacute apex.

4) Ligules, 10 x 2·5 mm, oblong-linear, sometimes suffused with red or purple,

deflexed.

5) Disc, up to 13 mm in diam.

6) Receptacle, depressed-hemispherical; scales brownish-purple towards the apex,

cuneate, attenuate, to a rigid, curved or flexuous subulate point slightly shorter

than the scale, equalling or shorter than the florets.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes, 2-2·5 x 1·5 mm, compressed, with acute angles, 7- to 9-striate at each

side, those of ligules triangular, those of tubular florets quadrangular.

2) Corona, short, whitish.

Key features:-

1) Receptacular scales bronze-purple at maturity.

2) Ripe achenes remaining on the receptacle, forming a compact head.

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Habitat:- Gravelly streambeds, fallow fields and stony mountain slopes 0-1000 m.

Distribution:- In Greece restricted to the Aegean area and rare. Also Cyprus,

Syria, Palestine and Iraq. Limited distribution on Crete. Rare.

Flowering time:- End of Apr to mid-June

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis and Dimokratia Vrentzou