SPECIES DESCRIPTION
VERONICA CYMBALARIA
Including Veronica trichadena
Family:- PLANTAGINACEAE/Sect. POCILLA
Common Names:- Cymbalaria-leaved speedwell, Pale speedwell.
Synonyms:- Cochlidiosperma cymbalaria, Pocilla cymbalaria.
Meaning:- Veronica (L) For Saint Veronica, who wiped the sweat from Christ's
face.
Cymbalaria (L) Cymbal-like (reference to the leaves).
General description:- Slender annual, usually sparingly branched from the base
with decumbent stems.
Stems:-
1) Sparsely pilose 10-30 cm, broadly ovate, the entire cotyledons often retained at
anthesis.
Leaves:-
1) Rather long-petiolate, all but the lowermost alternate, the lowest opposite.
2) Blade, 6-18 mm, broadly ovate to orbicular or reniform, shallowly lobed or
coarsely crenate, thin, light green, subglabrous.
3) Pedicels, much exceeding leaves.
Flowers:-
1) 4 petalled, solitary in the leaf axils.
2) Fruiting pedicels exceeding thee subtending leaf, often patent or recurved.
3) Calyx segments broadly elliptical to suborbicular, patent in fruit.
4) Corolla 6-10 mm in diam., white.
5) Sepals heart-shaped at the the base.
6) Style c. 1·5 mm.
Fruit:-
1) Capsule c. 3 x 4 mm, shallowly 2-lobed; style 1-2 mm.
2) Calyx teeth and capsule with long and coarse, glandular and eglandular hairs up
to 2 mm.
3) Seeds c. 4, large, (2-2.5 mm), subglobose, deeply excavate on one side.
Key features:-
1) Flowers in terminal racemes (sometimes also in axillary racemes below the
terminal) or solitary in leaf-axils.
2) Stems ± procumbent.
3) Seeds at least 2 mm.
4) Leaves 5- to 9-lobed.
5) Calyx-segments obovate, obtuse.
6) Capsule ciliate.
Habitat:- Gravelly beaches, culitaved and fallow fields, rock ledges in gorges,
orchards, stone walls of buildings. 0-800 m. occasionally to 1500 m. in dolines.
Distribution:- Widespread in the Mediterranean regiom. Widespread and common
on Crete.
Flowering time:- Mainly Mar-May.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
VERONICA TRICHADENA
Synonyms:- Cochlidiosperma trichadena, Veronica cymbalaria subsp.
trichadena.
Meaning:- Trichodena (Gr) With hairy glands.
Resembling Veronica cymbalaria, but differering in the following characters.
1) Generally smaller.
2) Leaf blade 6-13 mm, shallowly crenate to subentire, usually glandular-pubescent.
3) Fruiting pedicels scarcely exceeding the subtending leaf.
4) Calyx segments shortly glandular-pubescent.
5) Capsule with glandular and eglandular hairs, generally less than 1 mm.
Habitat:- Rocky slopes, gorges, cliff ledges, field margins. (200-)500-1200 m.
Distribution:- Scattered in the Mediterranean region from the Balearic Islands to
SW Anatolia. Rare on Crete known from only a few locations in the Sitia area and
two elsewhere.
Flowering time:- Mar-June
Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis
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