VIOLA SCORPIUROIDES

Family and Genus:- See- VIOLACEAE/Sect. XYLINOSIUM

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Viola The Latin name applied to several fragrant plants.

Scorpiuroides (L) Curved like a scorpion's tail.

General description:- Procumbent to ascending shrublet with herbaceous

flowering shoots.

Stems:-

1)10-20 cm, woody and corky at the base, ascending, greyish, pubescent.

Leaves:-

1) Glabrescent above, with short, deflexed hairs on the petiole and underside of the

lamina.

a) lamina, elliptic-oblanceolate, 3-7 mm wide, gradually narrowed to a slender

petiole.

2) Stipules, small, 1-2 mm, linear-lanceolate, ciliate.

Flowers:-

1) Peduncles, slender, exceeding the leaves.

2) Sepals, 3-4 mm, broadly lanceolate, with scarious, ciliate margins and

short, truncate appendages, sometimes tinged reddish-purple.

3) Corolla, about as wide as long in face view, bright to deep yellow.

a) lower petal, including spur, 8-13 mm.

b) spur, stout, obtuse, with 2 dark brownish-purple spots at the base.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, broadly obovoid to subglobose, glabrous.ovate to three-angled, almost

equalling the sepals, many-seeded.

Key features:-

1) Procumbent to ascending shrublet.

2) Corolla, bright to deep yellow with 2 dark brownish-puxple spots at the base of

the lower petal.

Click here for a glossary of terms used

Habitat:- Dry, rocky slopes with dry open shrubby vegetation , generally on hard,

rugged lime-stone. 0-600 m.

Distribution:- Endemic W. & E. Crete, Kythera, Antikythera & N. Africa. Known

only from the east and west ends of Crete the N. Akrotiri peninsula and an area

near Zaros C Crete.

Flowering time:- (Jan-)Mar-May.

Photos by:- Yannis Zacharakis

Status:-

Conservation status (for threatened species): Rare (R) according to the Red Data

Book of Rare and Threatened Plants of Greece (1995).

Protection status (for threatened species): Greek Presidential Decree 67/1981.