FILAGO WAGENITZIANA

Family:- COMPOSITAE

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Filago (L) Thread.

Wagenitziana (L) For Gerhard Wagenitz (b. 1927), a distinguished

German botanist and specialist on Centaurea, Filago, etc.

General description:- Tiny grey-felted annual, to 4cm only, often branched at the

base.

Stem:-

1) 2-4(-5) cm.

Leaves:-

1) Cauline, 7-10 x 3 mm.

2) Rosette, somewhat rigid 5-15 x 2-5 mm, 2-3 times as long as the cluster,

linear-lanceolate, green above and white-tomenose beneath.

Flowers:-

1) Clusters of capitula 5-35 mm wide, very compact, subglabrous.

2) Involucral bracts (3-)4-4·3 x 1·5-1·8 mm, lanceolate-obovate to obovate, straight

on the back, glabrous, brownish-yellow, cuspidate with arista, c. 1 mm.

3) Outer and middle phyllaries shortly acuminate, green in the centre, contrasting

with the wide hyaline margin.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes, 1·2-1·4 mm, dark brown, glabrous, non-feathery, tuberculate, hard on

the edges.

Key features:-

1) Leaves linear-lanceolate, green above and white-tomenose beneath.

2) Outer and middle phyllaries shortly acuminate, green in the centre, contrasting

with the wide hyaline margin.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Openings in coastal dry open shrubby vegetation and still pockets among

quartzite boulders in open Platanus woodland 0-760 m

Distribution:- A recently described species, known from only a few collections in

W Crete.

Notes:- A recently described, distinct species, but inconspicuous and easily

overlooked. It was collected by the present author in 2002 but tucked away among

unidentified material and not examined again until 2015 (identity then confirmed by

Bergmeier). ¹⁾

1) Atlas of the Aegean Flora. By Arne Strid 2016.

Flowering time:- April to early May

Photos by:- Christopher Cheiladakis