SPECIES DESCRIPTION
APIUM NODIFLORUM
Family and Genus:- See- UMBELLIFERAE
Common Name:- Fool's watercress
Homotypic Synonyms:- Helosciadium nodiflorum
Meaning:- Apium (L) A name used by Pliny for celery-like plants.
Nodiflorum (L) Flowering at the nodes.
General description:- Procumbent or ascending perennial
Stems:-
1) Up to 100 cm. hollow, rooting at the lower nodes.
Leaves:-
1) 1-pinnate, segments 10-60 mm, 7-13, lanceolate to ovate, serrate and often
somewhat lobed.
Flowers:-
1) Peduncle, usually shorter than the rays, often almost absent.
2) Umbels, leaf-opposed.
3) Rays, 3-12.
4) Bracts, usually absent, rarely 1 or 2;
a) bracteoles, 5-7, ovate or lanceolate, with a white, membranous margin.
Fruit:-
1) 1·5-2 mm, longer than wide, ovoid.
Key features:-
1) Bracteoles, 5-7, with white, membranous margins.
2) Leaves, all with lanceolate to suborbicular, serrate or shallowly lobed segments.
3) Stem, procumbent, rooting at lower nodes, then ascending or erect.
4) Peduncle, usually shorter than the rays.
5) Bracts, 0-2.
Habitat:- Muddy places by streams, ditches and slushes, tolerating polluted
habitats by villages, etc. 0-1200 m.
Distribution:- Throughout Greece. - W, C & S Europe, Mediterranean area and
Anatolia. Widespread, but sparsely scattered on Crete but rarer in the central east.
.
Flowering time:- Mar-July, occasionally later.
Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis
