PUTORIA CALABRICA

Family and Genus:- See- RUBIACEAE

Common Names:- Stinking madder, Putoria

Homotypic Synonyms:- Asperula calabrica, Plocama calabrica, Putoria

foetida,.

Meaning:- Putoria (L) Stinker.

Calabrica (L) From Calabria, S.Italy.

General description:- Much branched, foetid dwarf shrub forming woody mats,

glabrous to densely puberulent.

Stems:-

1) Much branched, bluntly 4-angled, puberulent when young.

Leaves:-

1) 10-20 x c. 3 mm, opposite, short-petiolate;

a) blade, 8-18 mm, oblong-lanceolate, obtuse to subacute, somewhat

coriaceous, blackening on drying.

2) Stipules, small, and inconspicuous c. 1 mm, interpetiolar, more or less fused.

obovate to elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse, margins revolute.

Flowers:-

1) Infundibuliform, in terminal, contracted cymes.

a) tube, long, 10-15 mm, pink, 4-lobed 3-4 mm, linear-lanceolate.

b) lobes, 4(-5) slender, oblong-lanceolate, patent to recurved.

2) Calyx, short, with 4 triangular teeth.

3) Style, filiform,

a) stigma, short 2-lobed.

b) ovary 2-locular with 1 ovule in each loculus.

Fruit:-

1) Drupe, with 2 pyrenes, c. 5 mm, two-lobed, red or blackish when ripe.

Key features:-

1) Leaves, opposite, with small stipules.

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Habitat:- Cliffs, rocky and gravelly slopes, road embankments, in open woodland,

0-1200(-2000) m.

Distribution:- Common in W Greece, lacking in the NE. - Widespread but

scattered in the Mediterranean region, extending to SE Anatolia. Occurs in western

and central Crete.

Flowering time:- Late Apr to July, sometimes later.

Photo by:- Fotis Samaritakis