AMMI MAJUS

Family and Genus:- See- UMBELLIFERAE

Common Name:- Bullwort, False bishopweed.

Homotypic Synonyms:- Ammi topalii

Meaning:- Ammi (L) A name used by Pliny for celery-like plants.

Majus (Gr) Sand, a name used by the Greek physician and botanist

Dioscorides.

General description:- Erect annual, with a fairly stout, whitish taproot. Very

variable in habit and leaf-dissection.

Stems:-

1) 30-100 cm, circular terete, striate.

Leaves:-

1) 1-3-pinnate, segments narrowly elliptical and the margins serrate in the lower

leaves, usually linear and subentire in the uppermost.

Flowers:-

1) Bracts, pinnatisect, with filiform lobes, sometimes entire.

2) Bracteoles, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate,.acuminate.

3) Rays, 15-40, slender and erecto-patent, in flower and fruit.

4) Pedicels, slender.

5) Petals, white.

Fruit:-

1) 1·5-2 mm, broadly oblong, with thin but prominent ridges.

Key features:-

1) Rays 15-40, remaining slender in fruit.

Click here for a glossary of terms used

Habitat:- Vineyards, harvested fields, olive groves, wasteground. 0-400(-750) m.

Distribution:- Scattered throughout Greece, but lacking in most of the interior. -

Widespreadin the Mediterranean area, N Africa and SW Asia to Pakistan.

Scattered across Crete.

Flowering time:- Late May to mid-Aug

Photos by:- Gisela Nikolopoulou