SPECIES DESCRIPTION
LIMONIUM CRETICUM
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.
Creticum (L) From Crete, Cretan.
General description:- Glabrous perennial, forming a sub-shrub 20-50 cm tall, with
few erect stems and a robust tap- root,
Caudices:-
1) 2-15 cm long, branched, spirally leafy in the upper half, living leaves in rosettes at
apices.
Stems:-
1) 15-45 cm long, normally robust, more or less flexuous, verrucate to rugose,
branching begins frequently near the base.
2) Branches:-
a) sterile. 0.5-8 cm long, absent or only 1-3 per stem, straight to arched, mostly
unbranched.
b) fertile, 3-18 cm long, robust, slightly arched to straight, forming branching
angles of 40°-60°, branched.
Leaves;-
1) 25-85 x 8-20 mm, coriaceous, flat, rigid, grey-olivaceous, scabrous, spathulate to
oblanceolate, apex obtuse to rounded, cuspidate to mucronulate, with one
central nerve, gradually tapering into the petiole.
Flowers:-
1) Spikes, 15-80 mm long, straight to arched, inserted obliquely.
a) spikelets, 6.6-7.3 mm long, composed of 1-3 flowers, remotely arranged with
2-4 per cm, sometimes laterally slightly curved near the base.
2) Bracts:
a) outer, 2.5-3.0 x 2.0-2.5 mm, more or less narrowly triangular-ovate, acute
margin broadly membranous; central part slightly fleshy, sometimes only at
the base, acuminate.
b) middle, membranous, 2.6-3.2 x 1.9-2.5 mm broad, oblong-obovate, rounded.
c) inner, 6.2-6.8 x 4.1-4.8 mm, obovate, rounded, margin very broadly
membranous; central part fleshy, somewhat hard, 4.9-5.3 x 2.4-3.0 mm broad
oblong to elliptic, acuminate, forming a triangular tip, 0.8-1.0 mm long, not
reaching the upper margin.
3) Calyx, 5.1-6.4 mm long, exceeding the inner bract by 0.5-1.5 mm,
a) tube, more or less sparsely long hairy, with 5 ribs ending above the base of
the lobes.
b) lobes, ca. 0.7 × 0.9 mm, broadly semi-elliptic.
4) Corolla, violet.
Habitat:- Coastal habitats with limestone rocks and yellowish marl, 0-10 m.
Distribution:- Restricted to Crete, where it grows in the northwest coast between
Chania and Cap Drapano, and in the central-southern part between Timbaki and Kali
Limenes
Flowering time:- Late April to July, perhaps also later.
Photos:- Currently unavailable
