ASTRAGALUS PELECINUS subsp, PELECINUS

Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE

Common Name:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Biserrula pelecinus.

Meaning:- Astragalus (Gr) Ankle-bone, (a plant with knotted roots).

Pelecinus Meaning unknown

General description:- Annual.

Stems:-

1) (-3)6-25(-40), usually branched from the base, sparsely pilose with simple,

basifixed white hairs.

Leaves:-

1) Imparipinnate.

2) Leaflets. 7-15 pairs, elliptical to narrowly obovate, distinctly emarginate.

Flowers:-

1) Peduncle. suberect, somewhat shorter than subtending leaf.

2) Raceme, short, 2-5(-11)-flowered.

3) Calyx, 3.5-4.5 mm, sparsely pilose with mostly blackish hairs.

4) Corolla, slightly exceeding the calyx, usually pale bluish-mauve.

5) Fertile stamens 5.

Fruit:-

1) Legume, soon protruding from calyx, when mature sessile, 15-40 x 5-8 mm,

strongly dorsiventrally flattened, each valve with a sinuate-dentate margin,

inhehiscent.

Key features:-

1) Legumes, oblong, dorsoventrally compressed, each valve with a sinuate-dentate

margin.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Cultivated and fallow fields and orchards, dry open shrubby vegetation ,

sandy and gravelly coastal habitats. 0-400(-800) m.

Distribution:- Throughout Greece but rare in the interior north. - Widespread in the

Mediterranean region. Rare on Crete known from only a few scattered locations,

mainly in the east.

Flowering time:- End of Mar to beginning of May.

Photos by:- Francesco Russo