LINARIA CHALEPENSIS

Family and Genus:- See- PLANTAGINACEAE

Common Names:- White toadflax

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Linaria (Gr) Flax-like.

Chalepensis (L) From Aleppo, from the Arabic name (halab) northern

Syria.

General description:- Glabrous annual.

Stems:-

1) (10-)20-40 cm, usually single, simple or sparingly branched.

Leaves:-

1) 18-35 x 1-2 mm, linear, subobtuse, alternate.

Flower:-

1) Racemes, very lax.

2) Pedicels, 1-2 mm at anthesis, up to 4 mm in fruit, mostly shorter than the

bracts.

3) Calyx, 7-10 mm:

a) lobes, linear, acute, unequal (the adaxial the shortest).

4) Corolla, 12-16 mm, white:

a) spur, 8-11 mm, curved; mouth of the tube open.

5) Stigma, clavate, ± entire.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, 4-5 mm.

2) Seeds, 1-1·2 mm, tetrahedral, strongly ruminate.

Key features:-

1) Stigma, clavate, ± entire.

2) Spur, curved.

3) Seeds, 1-1·2 mm.

4) Corolla, white.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Weed of cultivated and fallow fields and olive groves, occasionally rocky

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

Distribution:- Scattered throughout Greece, the Mediterranean region especially in

the C. and E. parts extending to at least E. Anatolia. Sparsely distributed across

Crete, fairly rare.

Flowering time:- Mid-Mar to early June.

Photos by:- Dr. Armin Jagel