SPECIES DESCRIPTION
ASPERULA ARVENSIS
Family and Genus:- See- RUBIACEAE/Sect. ASPERULA
Common Name:- Blue woodruff
Homotypic Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Asperula (L) Little rough one.
Arvensis (L) Of the cultivated field, of ploughed fields.
General description:- Short, slender, hairless annual.
Stems:-
1) (5-)10-55 cm. simple or sparingly branched, 4-angled.
Leaves:-
1) (4-)10-25(-35) x 0·6-4 mm.
a) lowest, broadly lanceolate;
b) cauline, in whorls of 6-8, linear-lanceolate, obtuse, subglabrous.
2) Cotyledons, large, broadly oblong-ovate, often persisting until anthesis.
Flowers:-
1) 4-merous, subsessile, crowded in terminal, hemispherical glomemles subtended
by an involucre of narrowly oblong leaves,. equalling or shorter than the bracts.
2) Corolla, 5-6·5 mm, more or less salverform, bright blue or bluish-violet;
a) tube, 4-5·5 mm.
b) lobes, 0·5-1·7 mm.
3) Filaments, 0·2-0·3 mm.
a) anthers, 0·7-1 mm.
Fruit:-
1) Smooth, 2-3mm diam. brown.
2) Mericarps c. 3 mm, depressed-globose, vermcose.
Key features:-
1) Flowers, 4(-5)-merous, right blue or bluish-violet, rarely white.
Habitat:- Weed of traditional agriculture, with Agrostema githargo, Ranunculus
arvensis, etc., occasionally in semi-natural habitats. 0-1100(-1500) m.
Distribution:- Scattered throughout Greece. - Europe, N Africa and SW Asia. Rare
on Crete known only from fields of the Lasithi and Katharo plains in the Dikti
massif. And reported from one location near Zaros C Crete.
.
Flowering time:- Apr-May.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
