SPECIES DESCRIPTION
GLOBULARIA ALYPUM

Family and Genus:- See- PLANTAGINACEAE                     

Common Name:- Shrubby globularia

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Globularia (L) Globe.
                  Alypum (L) A former synonym for Globularia.
                      
General description:- Shrub, Young twigs and leaves with abundant calcareous
secretions.

Stems:-
1) Up to 150(-200) cm. ascending to erect, branched, especially below, glabrous or 
    sometimes glandular-hairy in the inflorescence.

Leaves:-
1) Oblanceolate to obovate, mucronate or the apex 3-dentate, coriaceous, short
    petiolate, uniformly distributed on the main stems, fasciculate, on short, non-
    flowering lateral branches.

Flowers:-
1) Lilac-blue, borne in globose heads, 10-25mm diam., mostly terminal, fragrant,
2) Corolla, with a single 3-lobed lip, sometimes with sessile axillary capitula below
    them.
3) Involucral bracts, broadly ovate, obtuse, sometimes mucronate, ciliate, densely 
    imbricate and forming a ruff below the flower-heads.
4) Calyx-teeth, about twice as long as the tube, setaceous, long-ciliate.

Key features:-
1) Shrub, with erect or procumbent woody branches.
2) Twigs, leafy up to the inflorescence.
3) Never rooting at the nodes.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Constituent of dry open shrubby vegetation, scrubland vegetation and as
undergrowth in open pinewoods on rocky hillslopes. 0-500(-900) m.

Distribution:- Fairly widespread throughout the Mediterranean. Rare on Crete,
known only from the Gulf of Mesara region and Gavdos island off the south-western
coast.

Flowering time:-  (Oct-) Jan-Apr.

Photo by:- Yannis Zacharakis