DITTRICHIA GRAVEOLENS

Family:- COMPOSITAE

Common Names:- Stink aster, aromatic inula.

Synonyms:- Alunia graveolens, Erigeron graveolens, Helenium graveolens,

Inula graveolens.

Meaning:- Dittrichia (L) Named after the German botanist Manfred Dittrich, the

previous director of the herbarium at the Botanical Garden in Berlin.

Graveolens (L) Strong smelling, heavily scented, rank-smelling.

General description:- Erect, densely glandular annual, smelling of camphor.

Stems:-

1) 20-50 cm.

Leaves:-

1) Lower, 20-75 x 2-13 mm, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, entire or remotely

denticulate.

2) Upper, sessile, semiamplexicaul.

Flowers:-

1) Capitula small, bright yellow.

2) Involucre 4-7 mm.

3) Outer bracts c. 3 x 0·5-1 mm, linear-triangular.

4) Inner 4-7 x 0·7-1 mm, linear-lanceolate.

5) Ligules 4-7 mm, not or scarcely exceeding the involucre.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes c. 2 mm, hairy.

2) Pappus with c. 30 setae.

Key features:-

1) Ligules 4-7 mm, not or scarcely exceeding the involucre.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Sandy and gravelly coastal flats, roadsides, field margins, wasteground.

0-600(-1000) m. often together with Dittrichia viscosa.

Distribution:- Throughout Greece mainly in coastal areas, Widespread in the

Mediterranean, SW. Europe. Fairly scattered across Crete mainly around coastal

areas.

Flowering time:- Aug-Oct..

Photos by:- Steve Lenton