NIGELLA DAMASCENA

Family and Genus:- See- RANUNCULACEAE

Common Names:- Love-in-a-mist

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Nigella (L) Blackish, (reference to the seed coats).

Damascena (L) From Damascus, Syria.

General description:- Erect, sparingly branched annual.

Stem:-

1) 20-50 cm., erect, simple or branched.

Leaves:-

1} Cauline, subsessile, divided into numerous linear-lanceolate laciniae.

2) Uppermost, 3-5, crowded just below the flower, longer than it and forming a

conspicuous involucre, divaricately dissected into linear-setaceous laciniae.

Flower:-

1) Perianth-segments, ovate-oblong, clawed, bluish.

2) Sepals, 12-20 mm, bright sky-blue to almost white; claw c.1/3 as long as the

limb.

3) Honey-leaves, lobes of the lower lip, about as long as wide.

4) Anthers, not mucronate.

5) Carpels, fused dorsally, large inflated, surrounded by involucre leaves.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, strongly inflated, broadly ellipsoid, smooth,10-locular.

2) Seeds, ovoid-triquetrous.

Key features:-

1) Perianth-segments, shortly clawed.

2) Lobes of the lower lip of the honey-leaves, about as long as wide.

3) Fruit, 10-celled.

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Habitat:- Dry open shrubby vegetation, scrubland vegetation, open woodland, field

margins, roadsides, olive groves. 0-900(-1400) m.

Distribution:- Throughout Greece but less common in the interior north and on the

East Aegean islands. - Mediterranean region and SW Asia. Fairly widespread on

Crete, but more common in the centre and west of the island rare in the east.

Flowering time:- Mid-Apr to early June, occasionally later.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton