LEGOUSIA HYBRIDA

Family:- CAMPANULACEAE

Common Names:- Venus' looking glass

Synonyms:- Click Here for a full list

Meaning:- Legousia. Meaning uncertain.

Hybrida (Gr) Hybrid.

General description:- Short to medium, often a rather hairy annual.

Stems:-

a) 10-25 cm.

b) generally much-branched, ascending to erect.

Leaves:-

a) alternate.

1) Blade:

a) oblong or oblong-obovate.

b) margin, markedly, wavy, curving up and down (undulate).

c) lower, stalked (petiolate), upper stalkless (sessile).

Flower:-

a) few.

b) sessile.

c) mostly in small terminal clusters.

1) Calyx lobes:

a) c. ½ as long as the ovary when in full flower (anthesis).

b) linear-lanceolate, acute or obtuse, erect or between spreading and erect.

2) Calyx teeth:

a) persistent, suberect, forming a crown much shorter than the narrowly ellipsoid

capsule.

3) Corolla:

a) c. ½ as long as the calyx-lobes.

b) reddish-purple to lilac.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule:

a) 15-30 mm.

b) narrowed at apex.

Key features:-

1) Flowers in panicles or small, terminal corymbs.

2) Corolla about half as long as the calyx-lobes.

3) Calyx-lobes ± erect in fruit.

Habitat:- Cultivated, fallow and waste land, roadsides, occasionally on open stony

hillsides or in open shrubby vegetation. 0-800(1200) in dolines.

Distribution:- Scattered throughout Greece, but less common in the north. -

Widespread in the Mediterranean region and SW Asia. Fairly widespread on Crete,

mainly around the four massifs.

Flowering time:- End Mar to mid-June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton