HYPERICUM EMPETRIFOLIUM subsp. EMPETRIFOLIUM

Family and Genus:- See- GUTTIFERAE/Sect. CORIDIUM

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Hypericum (Gr) Above-pictures. A name used by the Greek physician

and botanist Dioscorides for its use over shrines to repel evil spirits.

Empetrifolium (L) With Empetrum-like leaves. Empetrum = on rocks.

General description:- Erect to prostrate, much-branched shrublet.

Stems:-

1) Up to 50 cm, erect and caespitose with strict branching, or procumbent,

straggling and rooting.

Leaves:-

1) In whorls of 3, 4-12 x 0.5-2 mm, ericoid with revolute margins and translucent

glandular dots, fresh green, glabrous.

Flowers:-

1) In elongated panicles or simple cymes, or solitary.

2) Sepals, c. 2 mm, elliptic-oblong, obtuse, with subsessile black glands on the

margins.

3) Petals, 5-10 mm, bright yellow without reddish tinge and without black glands,

deciduous.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, ovoid, with oblique, swollen lateral vittae.

Key features:-

1) Red or black glands present, at least on the leaves, sepals or anthers.

2) Leaves, in whorls of 3.

3) Petals, and stamens deciduous.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Crevices and ledges of limestone cliffs, rocky road embankments with

open dry shrubby vegetation, outcrops in open coniferous woodland. 0-800 m.

Distribution:- Albania, southern mainland Greece, the Aegean, western Turkey,

Cyprus and north-eastern Libya. On Crete widespread but more common in the

west.

Flowering time:- Mid-Mar to early June.

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis