SPECIES DESCRIPTION
RESEDA LUTEA
Family and Genus:- See- RESEDACEAE/ Sect. RESEDA
Common Names:- Wild mignonette
Homotypic Synonyms:- Reseda macedonica
Meaning:- Reseda (L) Healer, a name used by the Roman naturalist and
philosopher Pliny for its use in the treatment of bruises.
Lutea (L) Yellow.
General description:- Short to tall leafy perennial, or occasionally biennial, bushy
and often becoming rather woody at the base.
Stems:-
1) 20-70 cm, leafy and slightly rough, solitary or sparingly branched from the base.
Leaves:-
1) Irragularly pinnatifid with 1-4 pairs of segments;
a) lower, with a winged petiole and broadly oblanceolate segments.
b) upper, narrower.
Flowers:-
1) In a cylindrical raceme, pale yellow.
2) Petals, 5 or 6,.deeply 3-lobed, yellow;
a) upper, lateral lobes, lunate and sometimes further divided.
b) mid-lobe, shorter.
c) lower, limb, entire or with 2 or 3 linear-spathulate lobes.
3) Bracts, usually caducous;
Fruit:-
1) Capsule, 6-12 x 4·5-5·5 mm, oblong, oblong-obovoid or ellipsoidal, rarely
subglobose, with short teeth.
2) Seeds, 1.6-1.8 mm, smooth and finally glossy.
Key features:-
1) Many of the leaf-segments linear.
2) Bracts, usually caducous.
3) Capsule, 6-12 mm, rarely nodding.
Habitat:- Dry open shrubby vegetation, open woodland, field margins, olive groves,
dry meadows. 0-1100 m.
Distribution:- Throughout Greece, but less common in the west. - Most of Europe,
N Africa and SW Asia. Moderate distribution on Crete.
Flowering time:- Late Mar to early July.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
