SPECIES DESCRIPTION
LYTHRUM BORYSTHENICUM
Family and Genus:- See- LYTHRACEAE
Common Names:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:- Ammannia borysthenica, Lythrum loiseleurii proles
borysthenicum, Middendorfia borysthenica, Peplis borysthenica, Peplis
nummulariifolia subsp. borysthenica
Meaning:- Lythrum (Gr) Gore, A name used by the Greek physician and botanist
Dioscorides, may refer to the flower colour.
Borysthenicum (Gr) From the environs of the Dnieper River, Belarus
and Ukraine.
General description:- Tiny, subglabrous or scabrid-hispid annual.
Stems:-
1) 3-10(-18) cm, usually erect, but sometimes creeping and rooting for a short
distance at the base.
Leaves:-
1) 5-20 x 2-8(-13) mm, alternate or opposite, oblong-oblanceolate to
broadly obovate, sessile.
Flower:-
1) (5-)6-merous, solitary (rarely in pairs) in the leaf-axils, sessile.
2) Bracteoles, c. 1·5 mm, filiform.
3) Hypanthium, 2-3 mm in flower (up to 4 mm in fruit), narrowly to very broadly
campanulate, 0·8-1·7 times as long as wide, often vinous red.
4) Epicalyx-segments, subulate, equalling or exceeding the sepals.
5) Sepals, deltate.
6) Petals, minute, fugacious, purplish, often absent.
7) Stamens, (5-)6, included.
Fruit:-
1) Capsule, globular to shortly cylindrical or ovoid-conical, shorter than the
hypanthium.
Very variable, especially in arrangement of leaves, degree of scabridity, and shape
of hypanthium.
Key features:-
1) Tube of hypanthium, broadly campanulate in fruit, at least as long as the
capsule.
2) Plant, often scabrid, at least in the younger parts.
3) Stems, ħerect, scarcely rooting.
4) Leaves, obovate.
Habitat:- Seasonally flooded depressions, with annual Juncus spp. Ranunculus
lateriflorus, etc. 0-1100 m.
Distribution:- Limited distribution across the Aegean. - Widespread in S & W
Europe, NW Turkey and Russia. Rare on Crete, currently known from only three
locations in the west.
Flowering time:- Late Apr to June, sometimes later.
Photos by:- Dr. Armin Jagel