SPECIES DESCRIPTION
LIMONIUM CALLIOPSIUM
Family and Genus:- See- PLUMBAGINACEAE
Common Names:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Limonium (Gr) Meadow-plant. A name used by the Greek physician
and botanist Dioscorides.
Calliopsium Meaning unknown.
General description:- Glabrous perennial, forming a sub-shrub 15-55 cm tall, with
few erect stems and a robust tap-root.
Caudices:-
1) 20-80 mm long, densely branched and densely spirally leafy with withered leaves,
living leaves in rosettes at apices.
Stems:-
1) 12-45 cm, glaucous, slightly flexuous, rugose, sometimes verrucate, branching
begins above the base of the stems, sometimes proliferating in axils.
2) Branches:-
a) sterile, absent or only 1-2 per stem, 0.5-5 cm long, straight, unbranched.
b) fertile,1-11 cm long, slightly arched to straight, directed obliquely upwards,
forming branching angles of 35°-60°, normally unbranched.
Leaves:-
1) fleshy, glaucous, flat, smooth, 15-35 x 4-10 mm broad, spathulate to
oblanceolate, apex obtuse to round, retuse, slightly mucronate, with one central
nerve, gradually tapering into the petiole.
Flowers:-
1) Inflorescence, trullate or obtrullate in outline.
2) Spikes, 20-80 mm long, arched, inserted obliquely or spreading.
a) spikelets, 8.5-9.0 mm long, composed of 1-3 flowers, very remotely arranged
with 1-4 per 2 cm.
3) Bracts:-
a) outer, 2.7-3.2 x 1.8-2.1 mm, triangular-elliptic, acute to obtuse, margin broadly
b) middle, membranous, 3.0-3.3 x 1.8-2.2 mm broad, oblong to obovate-
membranous; central part slightly fleshy, sometimes only at the base,
acuminate. elliptic,rounded.
c) inner, 7.8-8.3 x 3.7-4.2 mm, obovate to elliptic, obtuse; margin broadly
membranous; central part slightly fleshy, 5.2-6.1 x 2.1-2.6 mm, oblong,
acuminate, forming a narrowly triangular tip, 1.2-1.8 mm long, not reaching
the upper margin.
4) Calyx, 6.2-7.0 mm long, exceeding the inner bract by 0.5-1.0 mm.
a) tube, sparsely shortly to long hairy, with 5 ribs ending near the upper margin
of the lobes.
b) lobes, ca. 1.0 × 1.2 mm, semi-elliptic to triangular-ovate.
5) Corolla, sky-blue.
Habitat:- Rugged limestone coast, in strongly saline habitats close to the waterline.
Distribution:- Cretan endemic. Known only from the Northwest coast of Crete. Very
rare.
Flowering time:- June-Aug.
Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis
