SPECIES DESCRIPTION
PETRORHAGIA FASCICULATA
Family:- CARYOPHYLLACEAE/Sect. PETRORHAGIA
Common Names:- None
Synonyms:- Gypsophila fasciculata, Saponaria fasciculata, Tunica fasciculata.
Meaning:- Petrorhagia (Gr) Rock-bursting.
Fasciculata (L) Formed of, or growing in, bundles or clusters.
General description:- Slightly woody-based perennial.
Stems:-
glabrous above.
Leaves:-
1) Cauline, small, erect, 1-veined, rarely up to 5-veined.
Flowers:-
1) Usually in terminal clusters of 2-10.
Fruit:-
1) Seeds small (0.6-1. mm), without thickened margins, reticulate to minutely
Key features:-
2) Bracts usually distinctly shorter than the calyx.
3) Stem usually much-branched, glandular-pubescent, at least at the base.
4) Calyx teeth ± triangular, acute or subobtuse, 1-veined.
5) Seeds c. 1 mm, blackish-brown, ± tuberculate.
Habitat:- Gravelly slopes in gorges, 60-120 m (Crete), elsewhere on rocky
limestone slopes at 0-900-1500) m.
Distribution:- Only recently reported from a small area in SW Crete; otherwise
restricted to the Ionian Islands, NW Peloponnisos and the W part of the Greek
mainland.
Flowering time:- Apr-July, sometimes later.
Photos by:- Currenlly none available
GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED
Acute:- Sharp, sharply pointed, the margins near the tip being almost straight.
Bract:- An organ, often small and scale-like, but sometimes leaf-like, located
where the flower-stalk joins the stem.
Calyx:- A Collective name for the sepals - the outer whorl of organs in most
flowers.
Calyx-teeth:- Tip of a calyx lobe or division.
Capitate:- Pin-headed, shaped like a head.
Cauline:- Borne on the stem, of the stem.
Emarginate:- Distinctly notched at the apex.
Fastigiate - Fasciculate:- (of branches) erect and closely parallel, ‘bundled’, and
coming from a common point.
Glabrous:- Without hairs, hairless.
Gland:- A small rounded or oblong structure on the plant's surface containing oil or
some other liquid.
Glandular:- Covered with glands - often seen as tiny dots.
Glandular pubescent:- Hairs tipped with small glands that secrete oil or some
other liquid often making the leaves and stems sticky.
Hirsute:- Covered with stiff or coarse hairs.
Inflorescence:- The flowering branch or branches, flowers and bracts above the
uppermost leaves on a stem. Inflorescences are very variable from one species to
another.
Linear - Spatulate:- Narrow, parallel-sided to paddle-shaped.
Membranous:- Thin and dry, often opaque or transparent - like a membrane.
Mucro:- A sharp terminal point.
Mucronate:- Of or having a mucro; ending abruptly in a sharp point.
Patent:- Spreading.
Petal:- The inner perianth segments when they clearly differ from the outer - often
brightly coloured.
Reticulate:- Netted, net-veined, when the smallest veins of a leaf are inter-
connected like the meshes of a net.
Subobtuse:- Leaf tip or base: Somewhat blunted; neither blunt nor sharp
Tubercle:- A small rounded projection or protuberance, wart-like projections.
Tuberculate:- With small, wart-like projections.