SECURIGERA CRETICA

Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Artrolobium creticum, Coronilla cretica, Ornithopus

creticus.

Meaning:- Securigera (L) Axe-like, reference to some organ, possibly the fruit.

Cretica (L) From Crete, Cretan.

General description:- Subglabrous annual.

Stems:-

1) 15-60 cm, weak, usually branched from the base.

Leaves:-

1) Leaflets, 3-6 pairs, 5-20 mm, generally obtuse to truncate.

2) Stipules, 1-3 mm, linear.

Flowers:-

1) Peduncles, long, straight, slender, much exceeding subtending leaf.

2) Umbel, with 3-6, ± reflexed, short-pedicellate flowers.

3) Calyx teeth, short, broadly triangular.

4) Corolla, 4~7 mm, various combinations of white, pink and lilac.

Fruit:-

1) Legume, linear, terete, curved, distinctly articulated into 4-8 segments, beak

short, ± straight.

Key features:-

1) Legume, linear, terete, curved, distinctly articulated into 4-8 segments.

2) Umbel, with 3-6, ± reflexed.

3) Corolla, 4-7 mm.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Seasonally damp open shrubby vegetation, mixed scrub, olive groves,

field margins. 0-700 (-1100) m.

Distribution:- Almost throughout Greece, - From Italy through the Balkans and

Anatolia to Crimea, Georgia and W Syria. Crete and Albania. Scattered distribution

across Crete

Flowering time:- Apr to early June.

Photos by:- Dr. Armin Jage