PARIETARIA CRETICA

Family and Genus:- See- URTICACEAE

Common Names:- Cretan pellitory

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Parietaria (L) Wall-dweller, a name used by the Roman naturalist and

philosopher Pliny.

Cretica (L) From Crete, Cretan.

General description:- Prostrate to ascending annual, rarely lasting throughout the

year (perennating), (3-)5-25 cm, much-branched from the base.

Stems:-

1) 5-25 cm, slender, simple or sparingly branched, rather brittle, patent-pilose.

Leaves:-

1) 5-10(-15) x 3-8 mm, broadly ovate to broadly ovate-elliptic, acute or obtuse, long-

attenuate or truncate at the base.

2) Petiole, 0.2-2 cm, usually shorter than the blade.

Flowers:-

1) Inconspicuous, usually 3 in subsessile clusters along the stem, each cluster

usually with 1 terminal female flower and 2 lateral male, or hermaphrodite.

2) Bracts, connate at the base, oblanceolate-spathulate to oblong, accrescent and

indurated in fruit, forming a brownish, unequally 5-lobed involucre.

3) Perianth, of the female flowers, connivent above in fruit to form a narrow beak.

Fruit:-

1) Achene, 0.8-1 mm, brown.

Key features:-

1) Flowers, usually 3 in each cluster.

2) Bracts, accrescent and indurated in fruit, forming a brownish, unequally 5-lobed

involucre.

3) Perianth of female flowers, connivent above in fruit to form a narrow beak.

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Habitat:- Rock crevices, stone walls and dry, rocky slopes with dry open shrubby

vegetation. 0-500(-800) m.

Distribution:- Common in the Aegean area, scattered in coastal regions on the

mainland. Also in W Anatolia, Cyrenaica, islands W and S of Sicily. On Crete

widespread mainly along the coastal regions, but with a few inland incursions.

Flowering time:- Mar-May

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis