ANTHEMIS ABROTANIFOLIA

Family:- COMPOSITAE/Subgen. ANTHEMIS/Sect. HORITHIA

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- Cotula abrotanifolia.

Meaning:- Anthemis (Gr) Flowery.
                  Abrotanifolia (Gr) From an ancient Greek name for several fragrant-
leaved plants "wormwood leaved"

General description:- Caespitose dwarf shrub.

Stems:-
1) Flowering, 3-15 cm, with old petiole-bases at it's base.

Leaves:-
1) Up to 2·2(-3·5) cm, oblong, 1- to 2-pinnatisect, glandular-punctate, 
    subappressed-pubescent
2) Lobes, linear to oblong-obovate, mucronate.

Flowers:-
1) Capitula, 4-7(-9) mm diam.
2) Ligules, 3 x 1·75 mm, usually absent.
3) Involucre, hemispherical, sericeous, not umbonate.
4) Bracts, outer, ovate-lanceolate, attenuate to the acute apex, hyaline margin 
    absent, the rest oblong, with hyaline or pale brownish-thin, scarious margin and
    apex.
5) Receptacle, shortly conical; scales reaching the base of corolla-lobes, shortly 
    acuminate.

Fruit:-
1) Achenes, 1·25(-1·4) x 0·75 mm, obconical-pyramidal, scarcely ribbed;
2) Pappus, absent or an auricle not more than 0·25 mm.

Key features:-
1) Young leaves ± sparsely hairy.
2) Pappus absent or an auricle not more than 0·25 mm.
3) Achenes 1·25-1·5 mm.
4) Disc 4-8(-9) mm diam.
5) Involucre not umbonate.

Habitat:- Calcareous rocks and screes, open stony ground, flat clayey areas. (500
- 2300) m.

Distribution:- Cretan endemic of the Psiloritis, Dikti and Afendis Kavousi areas.
Rare

Flowering time:- May to early July.

Photos by:- Zacharias Angourakis & Steve Lenton

Status:-
Conservation status (for threatened species): Rare (R) according to IUCN 1997.
Protection status (for threatened species): Greek Presidential Decree 67/1981.
 
SPECIES DESCRIPTION