FUMARIA PARVIFLORA

Family and Genus:- See- FUMARIACEAE

Common Names:- Small fumitory

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Fumaria (L) Smoke.

Parviflora (L) Small-flowered

General description:- Suberect, hairless annual, usually branched from the base

Stems:-

1) 10-30 cm tall.

Leaves:-

1) Glaucous; ultimate lobes narrowly ljnear,bluish-green.

Flowers:-

1) Racemes, short-pedunculate, 7-15-flowered, small, dense and rather

inconspicuous.

2) Bracts, longer than the suberect, strongly thickened fruiting pedicels.

3) Sepals, minute (0.5-8.8 mm), usually deeply divided.

4) Corolla, 5-6 mm, white or pale pinkish-mauve, with tips of the inner petals deep

purple.

Fruit:-

1) Subglobose, c. 2 mm, keeled towards the slightly notched apex.

Key features:-

1) Corolla, not more than 9 mm. usually white.

2) Sepals, 0·2-1·5 x 0·2-0·7 mm, up to 1/5 as long as the corolla.

3) Bracts, equalling or longer than the pedicels.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Cultivated and fallow fields, olive groves, coastal habitats. 0-800 m.

Distribution:- Scattered throughout Greece, but rare in the N interior. -

Mediterranean region northwards to England.. Limited distribution on Crete. Rare

Flowering time:- Late Mar to May.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton