SPECIES DESCRIPTION
TEESDALIA CORONOPIFOLIA
Family and Genus:- See- CRUCIFERAE
Common Name:- Lesser shepherd's cress
Homotypic Synonyms:- Guepinia coronopifolia, Thlaspi coronopifolium.
Meaning:- Teesdalia (L) For Robert Teesdale (c. 1740-1804) Yorkshire botanist
and author of a Flora Castle Howard.
Coronopifolia (L) Crowfoot-leaved.
General description:- Small, hairless, subscapose annual.
Stems:-
1) 1 to several 5-45 cm, often with ascending basal branches.
Leaves:-
1) Rosette, narrowly oblanceolate 1-5 cm, petiolate, usually pinnatifid with acute
lobes, with few short, acute or obtuse lateral lobes and a broader, often 3-lobed,
terminal segment.
2) Cauline, (if present) less lobed or more or less entire.
Flowers:-
1) Petals, c. 1 mm, white subequal, as long as the sepals, the outer 1½-2 times as
long.
2) Stamens, 4.
3) Fruiting pedicels, 3-6 mm, patent, slender.
Fruit:-
1) Siliculae, angustiseptate, 3-4.5 mm, broadly obovate to suborbicular, notched,
narrowly winged.
Key features:-
1) Basal leaves, with acute lobes, or entire.
2) Petals, ± equal, as long as the sepals.
3) Style, absent.
Habitat:- Stony and rocky slopes with dry open shrubby vegetation, deciduous
scrub, field margins, vineyards. 0-1400 m. on various substrates.
Distribution:- Scattered throughout Greece. - Mediterranean region, casual in C
Europe and elsewhere. Fairly rare on Crete, confined to the 3 main massifs and an
area in the far SW.
Flowering time:- Mar-May.
Photos by:- Charalambos Chiotelis
