ALKANNA TINCTORIA

Family:- BORAGINACEAE

Common Name:- Dyer's alkanet

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Alkanna (L) From the Arabic, al-henna for Lawsonia inermis, the source

of henna.

Tinctoria (L) Used for dying.

General description:- Perennial, sometimes forming dense cushions. The whole

plant greyish-green, with a mixture of stiff, somewhat tubercle-based hairs and

short, eglandular hairs.

Stems:-

a) (5-)10-20(-50) cm.

b) procumbent or ascending.

c) eglandular.

Leaves:-

1) Basal:

a) 6-15 x 0·7-1·5 cm.

b) linear-lanceolate.

2) Lower cauline:

a) oblong-linear, heart-shaped (cordate) at the base.

Flowers:-

1) Racemes:

a) long, many flowered.

2) Bracts:

a) not or only slightly longer than the calyx.

b) oblong-lanceolate.

3) Calyx:

a) 4-5 mm in flower, 5-6 mm in fruit.

b) eglandular.

4) Corolla:

a) blue, hairless (glabrous) outside.

b) tube as long as or slightly longer than the calyx.

c) limb 6-7(-8) mm diam.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets:

a) c. 2 mm. diam.

b) irregularly covered in a network of small wart-like projections (reticulate-

tuberculate).

Key features:-

1) Corolla glabrous outside.

2) Corolla bright blue.

Habitat:- Rocky places in pdry open shrubby vegetation and open woodland, olive

groves, fallow terraces, occasionally on stabilised maritime sand dunes.

Distribution:- Widespread in the Mediterranean and throughout Greece. Rare on

Crete known from only a few coastal locations.

Flowering time:- Mar-June.

Photos by:- Georgios Dimakakos