SPECIES DESCRIPTION
ROEMERIA HYBRIDA ssp. HYBRIDA

Family:- PAPAVERACEAE

Common Names:- Violet horned-poppy.

Synonyms:- Chelidonium hybridum, Chelidonium violaceum, Glaucium
violaceum.

Meaning:- Roemeria (L) For Johann Jacob Roemer (1763-1891). A Swiss
physican, botanist and entomologist.
                 Hybrida (L) Mongrel, half-breed, hybrid.
                
General description:- Erect or ascending annual 20-45 cm, usually with a fine
interlaced covering of hairs resembling a spider's web (arachnoid indumentum),
sometimes with some bristles or stiff hairs (setae).

Leaves:- Deeply divided into lobes (1- to 3-pinnatipartite). Lower leaves with stalks
(petiolate), upper without (sessile).

Flowers:- Solitary or few. Pedicels 2-5 cm. Pedicels and flower-buds usually with
few arachnoid hairs. Buds nodding. Petals 12-22 mm, narrowly obovate, violet,
darker at the base but without a distinct basal spot. Anthers violet or yellow.

Fruit:- Capsule 4·5-9·5 x 0·2-0·4 cm, rarely shorter, linear, usually with setae only
in upper 1/2 but sometimes throughout.

Key features:-

Habitat:- Cultivated and fallow fields, olive groves, streambeds and coastal habitats.
0700 m.

Distribution:- From Greece and Libya to Pakistan, Limited distribution across the
Aegean region. On Crete currently known from only two areas.

Flowering time:- Late Mar to early June.

Photos by:- Thomas Giannakis

                          FAMILY AND GENUS DESCRIPTIONS

PAPAVERACEAE

General description:- Herbs with or without latex.

Leaves:- Usually spirally arranged, variously dissected.

Flowers:- Hermaphrodite, actinomorphic or zygomorphic, hypogynous. Sepals 2
(3), falling early (caducous). Petals 4-6. Stamens 2, 4 or numerous, whorled. Ovary
superior, 1-celled, 2-celled or imperfectly many-celled; carpels 2 to many.

ROEMERIA

General description:- Annuals with yellow latex.

Flowers:- Sepals 2, free, caducous. Petals 4, entire, crumpled in bud, caducous.
Stigmas 3 or 4, sessile over the placentae.

Fruit:- Capsule linear, opening by 2-4 long valves from top to bottom. Seeds
reniform, without aril.

Key features:
1) Capsule more than 10 times as long as wide, ± parallel sided. Opening by 2-4
valves. 
2) Flowers violet.