SPECIES DESCRIPTION
CRAMBE HISPANICA

Family and Genus:- See- CRUCIFERAE

Common Name:- Spanish seakale

Homotypic Synonyms:- Cochlearia hispanica, Rapistrum hispanicum.

Meaning:- Crambe. Meaning unknown
                  Hispanica (L) From Spain, Spanish.

General description:- Slender, usually densely hispid annual.

Stems:-
1) Simple or sparingly branched, 30-90 cm tall, densely and patently hispid below.

Leaves:-
1) Lower,up to 15 x 7 cm, lyrate-pinnatisect with (0-)1-2 pairs of small lateral lobes
    and a large, reniform-orbicular terminal lobe.

Flowers:-
1) Inflorescence, branched, ebracteate, much elongating in fruit.
2) Petals, 3-4 mm, white, sometimes purplish at base.
3) Fruiting, pedicels slender, 2-4 times longer than fruit.
4) Filaments of the inner stamens usually with a tooth-like appendage.

Fruit:-
1) Siliculae, transversely jointed; lower segment small, sterile; upper segment c. 3
    mm, globose, 1-seeded, becoming fleshy and blackish when ripe.

Key features:-
1) Lower segment of silicula shorter than the upper.
2) Filaments of the inner stamens usually with a tooth-like appendage.
3) Lower leaves with a large, ± reniform terminal lobe and 0-2 pairs of small lateral
    lobes.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Open dry shrubby vegetation, woodland margins, olive groves, roadsides,
ruderal vegetation. 0-300 (-600) m.

Distribution:- Scattered in coastal areas of W Greece. - Mediterranean area from
Portugal and morocco to W Syria, Previously unrecorded from Crete.

Flowering time:- (Jan-)Mar-May.

Photos by:- Dr. Armin Jagel