GEROPOGON HYBRIDUS

Family:- COMPOSITAE

Common Names:- Hairless goatsbeard, Slender Salsify.

Synonyms:- Tragopogon hybridus.

Meaning:- Gerapogon (L) Carrying a beard, bearded.

Hybridus (L) Mongrel, half-breed, hybrid.

General description:- Medium tall, hairless annual.

Stems:-

1) 10-40 cm tall, simple or sparingly branched, usually glabrous.

Leaves:-

1) Long-linear, subamplexicaul.

2) Peduncles inflated.

Flowers:-

1) Pinkish lilac, with only ray-florets, joined together in a solitary capitulum, often

by 5 to 8, much exceeded by the narrow, pointed flower bracts.

2) Phyllaries 7-8, linear-lanceolate, 1.5-3 times as long as the rose-pink to pale

violet ligules.

3) Receptacle with filiform scales.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes fusiform, sulcate, somewhat hispid on the ribs;

a) outer 3·5-5 cm with a beak 1·5-2 cm and pappus of 5 unequal, scabrid, rigid

hairs 1-2 cm.

b) inner c. 2·5 cm, with beak c. 1 cm and pappus of plumose hairs c. 2 cm.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Sandy shores, fallow fields, olive groves and rocky slopes with dry open

shrubby vegetation 0-1100 m.

Distribution:- Throughout Greece. Widespread and common throughout the

Mediterranean. Fairly widespread and common on Crete.

Flowering time:- End of Mar to early June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton