SANGUISORBA MINOR subsp BALEARICA

Including:- Sanguisorba verrucosa

Family and Genus:- See- ROSACEAE/Subgen. POTERIUM

Common Names:- Fodder burnet

Homotypic Synonyms:- Sanguisorba minor ssp. muricata, Sanguisorba minor

ssp. polygama, Sanguisorba minor ssp. balearica.

Meaning:- Sanguisorba (L) Blood-stauncher, reference to its styptic property.

Minor (L) Small, smaller.

Balearica (L) From the Balearic Islands.

General description:- Short-lived perennial with a slightly woody base.

Stems:-

1) Flowering, solitary or few, erect, 20-80 cm tall, sparingly branched rarely

leafless, usually densely hairy.

Leaves:-

1) Basal, in a well-developed rosette, imparipinnate.

2) Leaflets, (2-)4-9 pairs, of rather uniform size, usually 5-15 mm, elliptical to

suborbicular, dentate-serrate with 3-9 teeth on either side.

Flower:-

1) Flowering heads, terminal, broadly ovoid to subglobose, 12-25 mm in diam.

a) lower, hermaphrodite or male with yellow anthers.

b) upper, female, with reddish styles,

2) Sepals, bright green.

3) Petals, absent.

4) Hypanthium, 3-8 mm, usually angled, ridged or winged and with faces reticulate

or sculptured in various ways.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes, 1(-2), enclosed in the 4-angled hypanthium, which becomes dry and

hard.

Key features:-

1) Fruiting hypanthium, often rhomboid, angles winged, the surface irregularly

ridged or covered with acute to rounded processes.

Click here for a glossary of terms used

Habitat:- Dry grassland, dry open shrubby vegetation on rocky slopes, roadsides.

0-1100(-1900) m.

Distribution:- C and E Mediterranean from Greece and Crete eastwards, including

Cyprus. On Crete more common in the west.

Flowering time:- Apr-June.

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis

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SANGUISORBA VERRUCOSA Back to Top

Homotypic Synonyms:- Poterium verrucosum, Sanguisorba minor ssp.

verrucosa, Sanguisorba minor ssp. magnolii.

Meaning:- Verrucosa (L) With a warty surface.

Resembling S. minor but differering in the following characters:-

1) Fruiting hypanthium, not or scarcely angled, ellipsoid to subglobose, strongly

venucose.

Habitat:- Dry grassland, dry open shrubby vegetation, open woodland, olive groves,

field margins. 0-900 (1300) m.

Distribution:- C. and E. Mediterranean from Greece and Crete eastwards, including

Cyprus. Fairly widespread on Crete, but lacking in the C eastern area.

Flowering time:- Mar-May.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton