PLANTAGO SQUARROSA

Family and Genus:- See- PLANTAGINACEAE/Subgen. PSYLLIUM

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Psyllium squarrosum

Meaning:- Plantago (L) Foot-sole-like, (reference to the way the leaves lie flat on

the ground).

Squarrosa (L) Rough, (when closely overlapping leaves have protruding

tips or sharpe edges).

General description:- Herbaceous annual plant.

Stems:-

1) 2-25 cm, decumbent or ascending, usually with patent, flexuous branches as

long as the main stem. more or less scabrid-puberulent with deflexed eglandular.

hairs.

Leaves:-

1) 0·5-2 x 0·1-0·2 cm, linear, fleshy.

Flowers:-

1) Peduncles, 1-5 cm.

2) Spikes, 0·5-1·5 cm.

3) Bracts:

a) lowest 2, 7-12 mm, herbaceous or with very narrow scarious margins,

lanceolate-caudate, recurved, with divergent lateral veins at base.

b) upper, 3-4 mm, obovate-oblong.

4) Sepals, unequal:

a) anterior like the upper bracts.

b) posterior 2·5-3 mm, ovate.

5) Corolla-tube, 3·5-4 mm.

a) lobes, c. 2 mm, ovate, acute, not or scarcely rugose.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, 2-2·5 mm.

2) Seeds, c. 1·75 mm, cymbiform, ovate-elliptical in outline.

Key features:-

1) Lowest bracts very different in shape from the upper, with lateral veins at the

base, lanceolate-caudate.

2) Plant, not or minutely glandular.

3) Stems, with patent branches, deflexed-puberulent.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- In coastal sand and gravel, 0-50 m.

Distribution:- In Greece restricted to the Aegean area. - A SE Mediterranean

species, occurring in SW & S Anatolia, Cyprus and from W Syria to Egypt and

Libya. Rare on Crete know only from the islands of Gavdos and Gavdopoula, with

one location in the SW corner of mainland Crete.

Flowering time:- March-May.

Photos by:- A. N. Other