LITHOSPERMUM ARVENSE

Family and Genus:- See- BORAGINACEAE

Common Names:- Corn cromwell

Homotypic Synonyms:- Aegonychon arvense, Buglossoides arvensis,

Margarospermum arvense, Rhytispermum arvense.

Meaning:- Lithospermum (Gr) Stone-seed. A name used by the Greek physician

and botanist Dioscorides.

Arvense(L) Of the cultivated/ploughed field.

General description:- Very variable low to medium, somewhat bristly annual;

stem often solitary, erect, little-branched.

Stems:-

1) 10-50(-90) cm, solitary, usually erect, sometimes branched, hispid.

Leaves:-

1) Lowest, oblong-spatulate or obovate, obtuse, the others oblong to linear, acute or

subacute, usually erect.

2) Cauline, up to 8(-10) mm wide. oblong, obovate-oblong or oblong-spatulate to

narrow and linear.

Flowers:-

1) 5 mm in diam, joined together in a solitary or paired cyme of 10mm, white.

1) Corolla, 6-9·5 mm, infundibuliform, with 5 petals fused in the tube, glabrous

inside

and hairy outside, white (rarely purplish).

a) stamens, 5, inserted below the middle of the corolla-tube.

b) filaments, very short fused with the corolla.

2) Calyx, with 5 green free sepals, covered in hairs, scarcely exceeded by the

corolla.

a) lobes, linear or linear-lanceolate, unequal, acute.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets, 3-4 mm. obliquely ovoid, hard and firmly attached, without lateral

swellings, rugose, pale brown, attachment scar 1-1.5 mm wide.

Key features:-

1) Nutlets, 2·5-4 x 1·5-2·5 mm, with crowded, prominent tubercules.

2) Corolla, 6-9·5 mm, white (rarely purplish), infundibuliform.

3) Calyx, usually equalling or longer than corolla-tube in flower; with long, sparse

hairs.

4) Pedicels, cylindrical in fruit.

5) Lobes, acute.

6) Receptacle, not oblique in fruit.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Cultivated, fallow and waste ground, roadsides, stony slopes.

Distribution:- C to SE Europe and SW Asia to Iran. Widespread but not too

common on Crete.

Flowering time:- Jan-June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton