TEUCRIUM BREVIFOLIUM

Family and Genus:- See- LABIATAE/Sect. TEUCRIUM

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Teucrium (Gr) A name used by the Greek physician and botanist

Dioscorides, perhaps for the hero and first King of Troy, Teucer.

Brevifolium (L) Short-leaved.

General description:- Dense, much-branched shrublet.

Stems:-

1) 30-60 cm tall.

2) Twigs, 4-angled, puberulent, green or brown.

Leaves:-

1) 6-10(-15) mm, narrowly oblong, thick, entire, with revolute margins, densely grey-

puberulent on both sides.

Flowers:-

1) Verticillasters, 2-flowered.

2) Bracts, leaf-like.

3) Calyx, c. 5 mm, campanulate to obtriangular, grey-puberulent;

a) teeth, triangular, 2/3 as long as the tube, subobtuse.

4) Corolla. 10-16 mm, pale lilac;

a) lower lip, middle lobe, broadly oblanceolate, lateral lobe oblong and much

shorter.

5) Stamens, long-exserted.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets, smooth or reticulate.

Key features:-

1) Leaves, persistently grey-tomentose above; oblong to linear.

2) Twigs, green or brown.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Constituent of open dry shrubby vegetation on hot and dry, often S-facing

rocky limestone slopes. 0-500 m.

Distribution:- S Aegean Is. and Crete, more especially in eastern Crete.

Flowering time:- Mar to mid-May.

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis