LIMONIUM SIEBERI

Family and Genus:- See- PLUMBAGINACEAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Statice graeca var. sieberi, Statice sieberi.

Meaning:- Limonium (Gr) Meadow-plant. A name used by the Greek physician

and botanist Dioscorides.

Sieberi (L) For the botanist Franz Wilhelm Sieber (1785-1844).

General description:- Glabrous perennial, forming a sub-shrub 20-50 cm tall, with

few to several erect stems and a robust tap-root.

Caudices:-

1) 10-60 mm long, densely branched, densely spirally leafy in the upper half, living

leaves in rosettes at apices.

Stems:-

1) 10-45 cm long, rugose or sometimes slightly verrucate, green to glaucous,

slightly flexuous, branching begins above lower quarter of the stems.

2) Branches:

a) sterile, absent or only 1-5 per stem, 1-9 cm long, straight, unbranched.

b) fertile, 3-13 cm long, straight to slightly curved, directed obliquely upwards,

forming branching angles of 25°-50°, only longer branches divided.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, paniculate or obtrullate in outline

2) Spikes, 10-80 mm long, straight to slightly curved, erect, inserted obliquely

upwards or spreading.

a) spikelets, 6.5-9.0 mm long, composed of 1-3 flowers, remotely arranged with

2-3 per cm.

3) Bracts:

a) outer, 2.0-2.8 x 2.0-2.6 mm, triangular-ovate, obtuse to acute; bract margin

broadly membranous; central part slightly fleshy only at base, acuminate.

b) middle, membranous, 2.2-3.2 x 1.7-2.7 mm, oblong-elliptic to oblong-obovate,

rounded.

c) inner, 5.2-7.0 x 3.4-4.3 mm, elliptic to obovate, rounded; margin broadly

membranous; central part fleshy, 4.1-5.8 x 2.2-3.4 mm, oblong, acuminate,

forming a narrowly triangular tip, 0.7-1.0 mm long, not reaching the upper

margin.

4) Calyx, 5.2-6.8 mm long, exceeding the inner bract by 1.5-2.5 mm.

a) tube, glabrous or sparsely to densely shortly to long hairy, with 5 ribs ending

before or at the base of the lobes.

b) lobes, ca. 0.6 × 1.0 mm, semi- elliptic to semi-circular; sometimes the margin

of the calyx lacerate after anthesis.

5) Corolla, lilac to pale violet.

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Habitat:- Mainly on rocky limestone coasts, rarely in dry open shrubby vegetation,

some distance inland up to 200 m.

Distribution:- Almost restricted to Aegean area,- just extending to S Peloponnisos

and SW Anatolia, In Crete mainly on the northern coast

Flowering time:- May-July, occasionally later.

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