DAUCUS GUTTATUS

Family and Genus:- See- UMBELLIFERAE/Sect. DAUCUS

Common Names:- Daucus bicolor, Daucus setulosus

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Daucus (L) Latin name for carrot.

Guttatus (Gr) Spotted, covered with small glandular dots.

General description:- Slender, erect or spreading annual

Stems:-

1) 20-60 cm, usually several, branched, erect or ascending, retrorse-scabrid or

sometimes hispid, near the base.

Leaves:-

1) Lower, 2-pinnate, segments divided into short, linear, acute lobes.

2) Upper, with linear segments.

3) Peduncles long, erect;

Flowers:-

1) Rays, 8-25.

2) Bracts, equalling or exceeding the flowers, pinnatifid, with segments, setaceous

or sometimes linear, entire.

a) bracteoles, setaceous.

3) Petals, 0·6-2·5 mm, white, those of the central umbel usually dark purple.

Fruit:-

1) 2-3 mm; spines of the secondary ridges 1-2 times as long as the width of the

mericarp.

Key features:-

1) Bracts, not deflexed in flower; usually longer than the the rays.

2) Spines, on the secondary ridges of the mericarp dilated but not markedly

confluent at the base.

Click here for a glossary of terms used

Habitat:- Coastal habitats, dry pastures, dry open shrubby vegetation olive groves,

etc. 0-900(-1400) m.

Distribution:- Throughout Greece, but most common in the Aegean region. - C & E

Mediterranean area from S Italy and Cyrenaica to S Anatolia, Cyprus and Syria.

Fairly widespread across Crete.

Flowering time:- May-July.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton