SAGINA APETALA
Family:- CARYOPHYLLACEAE
Common Names:- Annual pearlwort
Synonyms:- Alsine apetala, Sagina inconspicua, Sagina procumbens var.
apetala, Sagina quaternella
Meaning:- Sagina (L) Fodder
Apetala (Gr) Without petals
General description:- Small, annual, usually branched from the base.
Stems:-
1) 2-6 cm, suberect, slender.
Leaves:-
more or less ciliate towards the base.
Flowers:-
3) Petals minute, often falling early, rarely absent.
Fruit:-
Key features:-
1) Delicate, ± erect annuals
2) Cauline leaves long-mucronate to anistate.
3) Pedicels, usually glandular-pubescent.
4) Sepals acute to mucronate.
Habitat:- Bare, open ground, usually on sandy soil. 0-1100 m. occasionally to 1400
m. in dolines.
Distribution:- Widespread throughout the Mediterranean region C & W Europe and
SW Asia. Widespread on Crete.
Flowering time:- Mar-May, sometimes later.
Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis and Dimokratia Vrentzou
SPECIES DESCRIPTION
GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED
Aristate:- With a bristle-like pointed axis.
Capsule:- Dry fruit that opens when ripe. splitting from the apex to the base into
separate segments known as valves.
Cauline:- Borne on the stem, of the stem.
Cilia:- Marginal hairs.
Ciliate:- Fringed with hairs - generally along the margin of a leaf, petal etc.
Filiform:- Thread-like; slender and parallel-sided.
Glandular pubescent:- Hairs tipped with small glands that secrete oil or some
other liquid.
Linear - subulate:- Narrow, parallel-sided to awl-shaped.
Merous:- Having a specified number of parts: e.g. "pentamerous" = 5-merous
Mucro:- A sharp terminal point.
Mucronate:- Of or having a mucro; ending abruptly in a sharp point.
Ovoid:- Egg-shaped
Pedicel:- The stalk of an individual flower.
Pyriform:- Shaped like a pear, Pear-shaped.
Sepal:- A member of the outer perianth whorl in most flowers. The sepals
collectively make up the calyx.
Subglabrous:- Almost without hairs.
Tuberculate:- With small, wart-like projections.