ANCHUSA HYBRIDA
Family and Genus:- See- BORAGINACEAE
Common Name:- Undulate anchusa.
Homotypic Synonyms:- Anchusa undulata subsp. hybrida, Anchusa undulata
var. hybrida.
Meaning:- Anchusa (Gr) Strangler or close. A name given by the Greek playwright
Aristophanes to an alkanet yielding red dye.
Hybrida (Gr) Hybrid.
General description:- Short to medium, biennial or perennial, covered in short and
long stiff bristly hairs (hispid) or bristles (setae) which are usually mostly not
tubercle-based.
Leaves:-
1) 50-150 x 3-10(-25) mm, margin often sinuate-dentate and undulate, elliptical.
a) basal leaves, in a rosette, subsessile,
b) upper, similar but, sessile, and amplexicaul.
Flowers:-
1) Cymes, several, dense, pedicels very short.
2) Bracts, shorter than the calyx.
3) Calyx, 5-10 mm, up to 15(-20) mm in fruit, divided to c. ½ into oblong-lance-
shaped, obtuse lobes.
4) Corolla, blue, violet or purple.
a) tube, 7-13 mm, 1½-2 times as long as the calyx.
c) limb, 3-5 mm diam.
d) stamens, inserted about the middle of tube and not reaching the scales.
Fruit:-
1) Nutlets, c. 2 x 3-4 mm, obliquely ovoid.
Key features:-
1) Plant, pubescent and with setae which are mostly not conspicuously white or
tubercle-based.
2) Stamens, inserted at middle of the tube and not nearly reaching the scales.
Habitat:- Cultivated, fallow and waste ground, dry hillslopes in open shrubby areas,
sandy coastal habitats. 0-1200 m.
Distribution:- Crete, S. Aegean Is. eastwards, including Cyprus. Widespread and
common on Crete.
.
Flowering time:- Mar-June.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
SPECIES DESCRIPTION
