HESPERIS LACINIATA

Family and Genus:- See- CRUCIFERAE

Common Name:- Cut-leaved Dame's Violet.

Homotypic Synonyms:- Hesperis matronalis subsp. laciniata

Meaning:- Hesperis (Gr) Evening, of the west.

Lanciniata (L) Jagged, fringed, slashed, with many flaps.

General description:- Biennial or short-lived perennial, somewhat woody at

base,

Stem:-

1) 10-80 cm, whole plant hirsute, with long (2-4 mm), ± patent, simple and 2-fid

eglandular hairs and short, usually more numerous glandular hairs.

Leaves:-

1) Pinnatifid to sinuate-dentate.

2) Cauline, sessile lower and middle, lanceolate to obovate, irregularly sinuate-

dentate.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, lax, usually branched and secund.

2) Pedicels, shorter than the sepals in flower, up to 15 mm in fruit.

3) Petals, 15-30(-40) mm, yellow variably suffused with purple, or entirely purple.

a) limb 3-9 mm wide, oblong to obovate.

4) Stigma, deeply 2-lobed.

a) style, c. 1 mm.

Fruit:-

1) Siliquae, erecto-patent, 70-130 x 1.5-3 mm, usually with short glandular and

longer eglandular hairs.

Key features:-

1) Pedicels, lower usually less than 20 mm in fruit.

2) Petal-limb, 3-9 mm wide, usually ovate-oblong

2) Siliquae, with short glandular and longer eglandular hairs.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Gorges, rocky slopes and open woodland, 200-1700 m.

Distribution:- Native to Albania, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Morocco, NW.

Balkan Pen., Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain. Previously unrecorded from Crete.

Discovered by Althea Ellery April 2026 near to the village of Agios Mamas.

Flowering time:- April-June.

Photos by:- Althea Ellery