HIBISCUS TRIONUM

Family and Genus:- See- MALVACEAE

Common Names:- Bladder hibiscus, bladder ketmia.

Homotypic Synonyms:- Ketmia trionum, Ketmia vesicaria, Trionum trionum.

Meaning:- Hibiscus (Gr) Old Greek name from Virgil for marsh mallow.

Trionum (Gr) Three-clawed.

General description:- Annual, somewhat bristly with the sharp stiff hairs lying

parallel and close to the surface.

Stems:-

1) 10-50 cm erect to decumbent, branched, with a line of small crispate hairs and

scattered setae.

Leaves:-

1) 4-7 cm, divided (except the lowest) more or less to the base into 3(-5) oblong-

lanceolate, usually deeply pinnatifid lobes.

Flower:-

1) Solitary on slender pedicels in the leaf axils.

2) Epicalyx-segments, with 10-13 several free, linear-lanceolate segments, and

bearing long, simple hairs.

3) Calyx, ± membranous, with dark purple veins, accrescent and somewhat inflated

in fruit; lobes broadly triangular.

4) Sepals, united for most of their length, with conspicuous, dark purple veins,

strongly accrescent, membranous and vesicular in fruit.

5) Petals, c. 20 mm, usually yellow with a purple blotch at base.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, 5-locular, villous, enclosed in calyx.

Key features:-

1) Leaves glabrous, or hispid beneath.

2) Plant not spiny.

3) Sepals, united for most of their length, membranous in fruit.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Cultivated and fallow fields, olive groves. 0-500 m.

Distribution:- Scattered in Peloponnisos and mainland Greece The Balkans

eastwards, including Cyprus; sometimes naturalised in the W Mediterranean. On

Crete known only from a few locations in the west. Rare.

Flowering time:- (May-) July-Sept.

Photos by:- Artemis Roukounakis