GALIUM INCANUM subsp. CRETICUM

Family and Genus:- See- RUBIACEAE/Sect. ORIENTIGALIUM.

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Galium (Gr) Milk.

Incanum (L) Quite-grey, hoary-white, grey.

Creticum (L) From Crete, Cretan.

General description:- Caespitose or mat forming perennial. Stock more or less

woody, with or without stolons.

Stems:-

1) Short, 2-5(-7) cm, 4-angled, glabrous or pubescent but never retrorsely

aculeolate.

a) flowering stems, ascending to erect.

b) non-flowering shoots, densely leafy.

Leaves:-

1) 4-7(-10) mm, in whorls of (5-)6(-8), narrowly oblanceolate, rather obtuse, dull,

densely hairy, with a short hyaline apiculum,

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, cylindrical, composed of few-flowered, shortly pendunculate

cymes.

2) Corolla, 1·5-2 mm, infundibuliform to cupuliform, white, cream or pale pinkish.

Fruit:-

1) Mericarps, subglobose, up to 2.5 mm diam, usually glabrous, rarely hairy.

Key features:-

1) Corolla, 1·5-2 mm, broadly cup-shaped to subrotate.

2) Mericarps, subglobose, up to 2.5 mm diam.

3) Stems, short and dull green.

4) Leaves, densely hirsute.

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Habitat:- Rocky and stony slopes, gorges, alpine pastures. (100-)900-1900 m.

Distribution:- Rare, endemic to the Dikti Massif.

Flowering time:- Late Apr to early Aug, depending on altitude.

Photos by:- Zacharias Angourakis & Christopher Cheiladakis

Status:-

Conservation status (for threatened species): Vulnerable (V) according to IUCN

1997.

Protection status (for threatened species): Greek Presidential Decree 67/1981.