PHLOMIS LANATA
Family:- LABIATAE
Common Names:- None
Synonyms:- Phlomis microphylla
Meaning:- Phlomis (Gr) Flame, (the hairy leaves were used as lamp wicks).
Lanata (L) Woolly.
General description:- Hairy shrub.
Stem:- Up to 55 cm. Eglandular.
Leaves:- Lower 1·5-2·8 cm, broadly elliptical, oblong, obovate or suborbicular,
wedge-shaped (cuneate) to rounded at the base, with small rounded teeth.
(crenulate), leathery (coriaceous), with long dense curly interwoven star-shaped,
matted woolly hairs (stellate-lanate) on both surfaces; stalk (petiole) up to 1 cm.
Floral leaves almost stalkless (subsessile), suborbicular, obtuse.
Flowers:- Whorls (verticillasters) 2- to 10-flowered. Bracteoles 6-10 x 3-5·5 mm,
broadly elliptical, oblanceolate or obovate, ending abruptly in a sharp point
(mucronate), straight at apex, stellate-lanate. Calyx 10-12 mm, covered with short,
dense, star-shaped, matted hairs (stellate-tomentose); teeth 0·5-1 mm, awl-shaped
(subulate). Corolla 20-23 mm yellow.
Fruit:- Nutlets hairy.
Key features:-
1) Bracteoles elliptic-lanceolate, oblanceolate, obovate or ovate, straight at apex.
2) Shrub up to 55 cm
3) Lower leaves 1·5-2·8 cm, broadly elliptical, oblong, obovate or suborbicular.
4) Calyx-teeth 0·5-1 mm. straight at apex.
Habitat:- A common constituent of open dry shrubby vegetation on rocky lime-
stone slopes, also roadsides and olive groves. 0-1100(1700) m.
Distribution:- Cretan endemic. Widespread and common, but more-so in the east.
Flowering time:- Apr to mid-June.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
FAMILY AND GENUS DESCRIPTIONS
LABIATAE
General description:- Herbs or shrubs, often glandular and aromatic.
Leaves:- Usually simple, without stipules (exstipulate), opposite.
Flowers:- Irregular having only one plane of symmetry (zygomorphic), usually in
contracted and modified cymes in the axils of opposite bracts or floral leaves,
forming pseudowhorls (verticillasters), which in turn are arranged in simple or
compound spike-like, cymose, corymbose, paniculate or capitate inflorescences;
rarely in true cymes. Bracts leaf-like, or much reduced or modified (usually called
floral leaves when conspicuous). Bracteoles usually small, sometimes absent.
Calyx usually 4- or 5-lobed, often 2-lipped with the upper lip 3-toothed and the lower
2-toothed. Corolla with united petals (sympetalous); limb usually 5-lobed, often 2-
lipped with the upper lip 2-lobed and the lower lip 3-lobed, rarely all 5 lobes forming
the lower lip. Stamens usually 4, arranged in two pairs of unequal length,
(didynamous), rarely 2. Ovary superior, 2-carpellate (having only female organs) but
appearing equally 4-lobed when mature due to further partition; style single, usually
branched above, apparently rising from the base of the ovary (gynobasic).
Fruit:- Four 1-seeded nutlets.
PHLOMIS
General description:- Herbs or shrubs.
Flowers:- Verticillasters few- to many-flowered, crowded or distant. Calyx tubular,
5- to 10-veined, 5-toothed. Corolla 2-lipped; upper lip hooded, distinctly notched at
the apex (emarginate); lower lip spreading (patent), 3-lobed. Stamens included or
exserted; anther cells divergent. Style-branches unequal.
Fruit:- Nutlets trigonous, glabrous or pubescent.
Key features:-
1) Calyx-tube subglobose, bell-shaped, funnel-shaped (campanulate,
infundibuliform) or tubular.
2) Style-branches distinctly unequal.
3) Calyx-teeth equal; tube with 5-10 veins.
Most species occur on dry, rocky ground.
Status:-
Protection status (for threatened species): Greek Presidential Decree 67/1981.