OSYRIS ALBA

Family and Genus:- See- SANTALACEAE

Common Names:- Osyris

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Osyris (Gr) Much branched, a name used by the Greek physician and

botanist Dioscorides.

Alba (L) Bright, dead-white.

General description:- Much-branched, suberect, dioecious shrub or subshrub

Stems:-

1) Up to 130 cm, with many slender, spreading branches. green and angular

when young, becoming brown, terete and up to 10 mm, thick.

Leaves:-

1) Alternate, 8-25 x 1-4 mm, narrowly oblanceolate, slightly coriaceous, often

caducous, untoothed; with a single mid-vein; lateral veins obscure or absent

giving the plant a rush-like habit.

Flowers:-

1) Small, sweetly scented, greenish-yellow, with 3(4) broadly triangular perianth

lobes, 1.5-2 mm;

a) male, in small clusters, with 3(-4), hairy stamens.

b) female, borne on separate plants, with a 3-lobed stigma.

2) Bracts, foliaceous, persistent.

Fruit:-

1) Drupe, globose, 5-8 mm in diam. bright red when ripe.

Key features:-

1) Bracts, foliaceous, persistent.

2) Drupe, 5-8 mm.

Click here for a glossary of terms used

Habitat:- Rocky slopes with scrubland vegetation and mixed scrub, open woodland,

stone walls between olive groves, coastal thickets. 0-700(-1200) m. occasionally

later.

Distribution:- Widespread throughout the Mediterranean. Widespread and common

on Crete.

Flowering time:- Late Mar to June, occasionally later.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton