ANCHUSA AEGYPTIACA

Family and Genus:- See- BORAGINACEAE

Common Name:- Eastern anchusa.

Homotypic Synonyms:- Asperugo aegyptiaca, Lycopsis aegyptiaca.

Meaning:- Anchusa (Gr) Strangler or close. A name given by the Greek playwright

Aristophanes to an alkanet yielding red dye.

Aegyptiaca (Gr) From Egypt, Egyptian.

General description:- Annual, hispid with stout, tubercle-based hairs.

Stems:-

1) 5-30 cm, procumbent or ascending.

Leaves:-

1) 25-40 x 10-15 mm, oblong-oval to lance-shaped, margin dentate to somewhat

undulate.

a) lower, with a grooved petiole

b) upper, sessile, semi-amplexicaul, verruculose.

Flowers:-

1) Cymes, very lax, leafy. pedicels 2-3 mm, elongating and recurved in fruit.

2) Bracts, leaf-like, exceeding the calyx.

3) Calyx, c. 5 mm, divided almost to the base into linear-lanceolate, obtuse lobes.

4) Corolla,

a) tube, c. 4 mm, straight, slightly shorter than the calyx, pale yellow.

b) limb, 5 mm diam., with 5 slightly unequal lobes.

5) Stamens, 5, inserted at about the middle of the tube, 2 higher than the other 3.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets, 4-5 x 2-3 mm, erect.

Key features:-

1) Corolla, yellow.

2) Bracts, exceeding flowers.

3) Nutlets, 4-5 x 2-3 mm, erect.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Cultivated, fallow and waste ground, dry hillslopes in open shrubby areas,

sandy coastal habitats. 0-400 m.

Distribution:- S. Aegean Is. eastwards, including Cyprus. On Crete mainly

scattered around coastal regions.

Flowering time:- Mar to mid-May.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton