SPECIES DESCRIPTION
PARONYCHIA ECHINULATA
Family:- CARYOPHYLLACEAE
Common Names:- None
Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Paronychia (Gr) Beside-nail, a name used by the Greek physician and
botanist Dioscorides, for its former use to treat whitlows.
Echinulata (Gr) Prickly.
General description:- Annual.
Stems:-
1) 2-20 cm, spreading or erect, usually much-branched.
Leaves:-
Flowers:-
1) Clusters 3-8 mm diam.
2) Bracts inconspicuous, shorter than the flowers.
calyx-lobes, usually straight.
Fruit:-
Key features:-
1) Calyx with hooked hairs at the base, and with an awn c. 1 mm or more.
2) Awn on the calyx-lobes usually straight.
3) Leaves ovate to oblong-ovate, reddish.
Habitat:- Sandy and rocky places by the sea, hillslopes and ridges with dry open
shrubby vegetation. 0-300(-600) m.
Distribution:- Widespread, but scattered in the Mediterranean region from Portugal
and S Spain to SW Anatolia and Lebanon. Limited distribution across Crete around
coastal areas mainly in the far west and east and central areas.
Flowering time:- Apr to early June.
Photos by:- Dr. Armin Jagel
GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED
Achene:- A single-seeded dry fruit, not splitting.
Aristate:- With a bristle-like pointed axis.
Awn:- A stiff bristle-like projection, sometimes barbed or feathered. a fine bristle
ending an organ.
Axis:- A stem, commonly used for the main stem of a whole plant or of an
inflorescence. Also the area of the flower upon which the reproductive organs and
other ancillary organs are attached.
Bract:- An organ, often small and scale-like, but sometimes leaf-like, located
where the flower-stalk joins the stem.
Calyx:- A Collective name for the sepals - the outer whorl of organs in most
flowers.
Calyx-lobe:- One of the free upper parts of the calyx which may be present when
Membranous:- Thin and dry, often opaque or transparent - like a membrane.
Oblanceolate:- Inversely lanceolate, broadest towards the apex and tapering to
the stalk.
Oblong:- Rectangular with rounded ends - used to describe a leaf or petal shape.
Ovate:- Broad and rounded at the base and tapering toward the end.
Pericarp:- The part of a fruit enclosing the seeds that develops from the wall of the
ovary.