EBENUS CRETICA

Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE

Common Name:- Cretan ebony, Shrubby sainfoil.

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Ebenus (Gr) Ebony-black.

Cretica (L) From Crete.

General description:- Spreading to rather upright, grey-hairy shrub.

Stems:-

1) Up to 100 cm tall, ± sericeous throughout.

Leaves:-

1) 3-5-foliolate with a very short rhachis.

2) Leaflets, elliptic-oblong to obovate-oblong, 10-30 x 2-6(-10) mm, acute, greyish-

sericeous on both surfaces.

3) Stipules, connate, brown-scarious, 5-10 mm, bifid at the apex.

Flowers:-

1) In dense, showy, broadly cylindrical racemes.

2) Peduncles, short.

3) Calyx, tubular-campanulate,

a) teeth, 5 narrow, 6-12mm subequal, villous-plumose.

4) Corolla, 10-16 mm, glabrous, bright pink with deeper veins.

a) standard, slightly longer than the keel.

Fruit:-

1) Legume, compressed, included in the calyx, indehiscent, 1- or 2-seeded.

Key features:-

1) Small shrub.

2) Stipules, bifid at the apex.

3) Flowers, in dense racemes.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Crevices of limestone cliffs in gorges, sometimes gregarious as a

condtituent of open dry shrubby vegetation on rocky, moderately grazed hillslopes

and road embankments. 0-600(-1100) m.

Distribution:- A Fairly widespread Cretan endemic at low altitudes.

Flowering time:- Apr to early June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton