SPECIES DESCRIPTION
HIPPOCREPIS BIFLORA
Including Hippocrepis unisiliquosa
Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE
Common Names:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:- Hippocrepis unisiliquosa subsp. biflora.
Meaning:- Hippo (Gr) Horse (inferring coarseness or inferiority).
Crepis (Gr) A name used by Theophrastus for a shoe or enclosing wall
= Horseshoe (the shape of the fruit).
Biflora (L) Two flowered.
General description:- Subglabrous annual, mostly procumbent
prostrate or sloping upwards, generally much-branched from the base.
Stems:-
1) Slender, often several, up to 40 cm.
Leaves:-
1) Imparipinnate.
2) Leaflets, 3-6 pairs, linear-oval, truncate.
Flowers:-
1) 1-2(-3), axillary, 4-7 mm long, generally solitary, occasionally paired, subsessile.
2) Pedicels, glabrous.
3) Corolla, yellow,
a) standard, blade, attenuate at the base.
Fruit:-
1) Legume, 15-40 x 4-5 mm, broadly linear, straight or slightly curved, divided
into 4-8 horseshoe-shaped segments, often with blunt, colourless papillae.
Habitat:- Fields, hillslopes, waste ground, cultivated land, open shrubby land,
sometimes by streams. 0-900 m.
Distribution:- Almost throughout the Mediterranean region. Widespread on Crete.
Flowering time:- Mid-Mar to early June.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
HIPPOCREPIS UNISILIQUOSA
Homotypic Synonyms:- Ferrum-equinum unisiliquosum
Meaning:- Unisiliquosa
Resembling Hippocrepis biflora, but differering in the following characters:
1) Pedicels, pilose.
2) Blade of the standard distinctly set off from the claw.
Habitat:- As Hippocrepis biflora
Distribution:- Throughout the Mediterranean region. But on Crete currently
recorded only from the island of Koufonisi
Flowering time:- As Hippocrepis biflora
Photos by:- Saxafraga
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Family and Genus:- See-
Homotypic Synonyms:-
Click here for a glossary of terms used.
Homotypic Synonyms:-
Click here for a glossary of terms used.
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