ECHINOPHORA TENUIFOLIA subsp. SIBTHORPIANA

Family and Genus:- See- UMBELLIFERAE

Common Name:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Echinophora (Gr) Prickle-carrier (the spine umbels)

Tenuifolia (L) Slender-leaved, with narrow leaves.

Sibthorpii (L) For professor Humphrey Sibthorp (1713-97), of Oxford,

and his son John (1758-97), English botanist.

General description:- Bushy, rigid, intricately branched biennial or perennial

forming rounded clumps.

Stems:-

1) Up to 60 cm.

Leaves:-

1) Basal, large, 2- or 3-pinnate. lanceolate in outline;

a) lobes, somewhat fleshy, flat, dentate, not spine-tipped.

2) Cauline;

a) lobes, ovate.

Flowers:-

1) Rays, 2-5, pubescent.

2) Bracts, 2-5, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate;

a) bracteoles, 5, ovate, deflexed, spinescent in fruit.

3) Pedicels of the marginal male flowers in each umbellule thickening and forming a

cage around the single fruit.

4) Petals, ciliate, the outer scarcely larger than the inner. yellow.

Key features:-

1) Leaf-lobes flat, not spine-tipped.

2) Petals yellow.

Click here for a glossary of terms used

Habitat:- Fallow and harvested fields, occasionally on roadsides and in ruderal

habitats. 0-400 m.

Distribution:- E Greece. - Balkan Peninsula and SW Asia to Afghanistan. Rare on

Crete known only from the N coast between Heraklion and Malia and one location

in the Dikti mountains.

Flowering time:- Aug-Oct.

Photos by:- Zacharias Angourakis