CYMBALARIA MICROCALYX subsp. HETEROSEPALA

Including:- Subsp. dodecanesi.

Family and Genus:- See- PLANTAGINACEAE

Common Names:- Ivy-leaved toadflax

Homotypic Synonyms:- Linaria cymbalaria

Meaning:- Cymbalaria (L) Cymbal-like (reference to the leaves).

Microcalyx (Gr) With a small calyx.

General description:- Slender, delicate perennial with much branched, trailing

stems and stolons, forming loose mats on rock faces; the whole plant sparsely

villous.

Leaves:-

1) Long-petiolate:

2) Blade, up to 10 x 15 mm, reniform to suborbicular, cordate at the base, shallowly

3 (-5)-lobed, thin.

Flowers:-

1) Pedicels, filiform, elongating and ± recurved in fruit.

2) Calyx, very small (1-1.5 mm), deeply lobed.

3) Corolla, c. 12 mm (incl. the short, conical spur).

a) upper lip, with 2 erect, broadly oblong lobes.

b) lower lip, broad, deeply divided into 3 ovate lobes.

4) Ground colour usually pale lilac, with violet streaks at the base of the upper lip

and an orange-yellow boss on the lower lip.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, subglobose, pubescent.

2) Seeds, 1.0-1.3 mm, variously sculptured.

Key features:-

1) Whole plant, persistently covered with fine short soft spreading hairs or long

shaggy hairs.

2) Calyx, 1-1.5 mm.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Shady crevices of limestone cliffs in gorges and open woodland 0-700 m.

Distribution:- Endemic Crete, Karpathos & E. Aegean. Taxonomy at the

subspecies level is unsettled and preliminary, based on observations of a few

collections only, ssp. dodecanesi from the far east and ssp. microcalyx from the far

west of Crete.

Flowering time:- Apr-July.

Photos by:- Dr. Armin Jagel

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CYMBALARIA MICROCALYX subsp DODECANESI Back to Top

Homotypic Synonyms:- Cymbalaria acutiloba subsp. dodekanesi

Meaning:- Dodecanesi (Gr) From the Dodecanese.

Resembling Subsp. heterosepala, but differering in the following characters.

1) Spur, 2-3 mm, about twice as long as the calyx.

2) Ripe capsule, densely lanate.

Habitat:- As for Subsp. heterosepala.

Distribution:- Endemic Crete, Karpathos & E. Aegean. Taxonomy at the

subspecies level is unsettled and preliminary, based on observations of a few

collections only, ssp. dodecanesi from the far east and ssp. microcalyx from the far

west of Crete.

Flowering time:- As for Subsp. heterosepala.

Photos by:-