HYOSCYAMUS ALBUS

Family and Genus:- See- SOLANACEAE

Common Names:- White henbane

Homotypic Synonyms:- Hyoscyamus luridus, Hyoscyamus major,

Hyoscyamus minor, Hyoscyamus varians.

Meaning:- Hyoscyamus (Gr) Hog-bean. A derogatory name used by the Greek

physician and botanist Dioscorides.

Albus (L) Whitish, white.

General description:- Annual or short-lived perennial, glandular-villous

Stem:-

1) 30-90 cm, woody below when perennial, erect, branched, densely glandular-

villous, the hairs patent.

Leaves:-

1) All alternate, petiolate.

2) Lamina, 4-10 x 3-8 cm, cordate at the base, shallowly and obtusely lobed or

coarsely dentate, greyish-green.

Flowers:-

1) In a ± unilateral spike with leaf-like bracts.

2) Calyx, 10-15 mm, tubular-campanulate, ± ventricose at the base, with triangular,

acute teeth.

3) Corolla, slightly zygomorphic, pale yellow or greenish-yellow, often with a purple

throat.

4) Stamens, 5 scarcely protruding, sometimes with a dark purple filament.

a) anthers, included or only slightly exserted.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, rounded at the bottom, enclosed and exceeded by a persistent calyx,

opening with a lid.

Key features:-

1) Corolla, at least 2·5 cm, much exceeding calyx.

2) Flowers, sessile, except the lowest, in a dense spike.

3) Corolla, usually yellowish-white.

Click here for a glossary of terms used

Habitat:- Harbours and other ruderal coastal habitats, roadsides, bases of stone

walls in villages, olive groves. 0-600(-1200) m.

Distribution:- Most of Greece, but more or less lacking in the interior north. -

Mediterranean region and Anatolia, extending to S Russia, Syria and N Iraq.

Scattered mostly around the coastal areas of Crete, with a few inland locations.

Flowering time:- Late Mar to early June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton