SPECIES DESCRIPTION
SCROPHULARIA LUCIDA
Family and Genus:- See- SCROPHULARIACEAE
Common Names:- Shining figwort
Homotypic Synonyms:- Scrophularia lucida ssp. filicifolia, Scrophularia
gluaca, Scrophularia sphaerocarpa
Meaning:- Scrophularia (L) Scrophula, a glandular disease to which breeding
sows were said to be prone, many plants were used to treat this disease.
Lucida (L) Bright, clear, shining.
General description:- Glabrous, often glaucous biennial or short-lived perennial.
Stem:-
1) 10-50(-l00) cm, usually solitary.
Leaves:-
1) Basal, 7-15 x 2-5 cm, deeply pinnatifid to 2-pinnatisect;
a) lobes, ovate to oblong, margins more or less serrate or crenate.
2) Cauline,.gradually diminishing.
Flowers:-
1) Inflorescence, usually narrow, with lax, 3-15-flowered cymes.
2) Pedicels, c. ½ as long as calyx, glandular.
3) Bracts, small, not leaf-like.
4) Calyx;
a) teeth, broadly ovate, with pale or brownish margins.
b) lobes, more or less orbicular, entire or serrate; margin, scarious.
5) Corolla, 4-9 mm, brownish-maroon, without a white border.
6) Stamens, included;
a) staminode, reniform.
Fruit:-
1) Capsule, c. 5 mm, spherical, mucro, c. 1 mm.
Key features:-
1) Biennial, usually with a single stem.
2) Leaf-lobes, ovate to oblong.
3) Mucro of capsule c. 1 mm.
Habitat:- Rocky places in dry open shrubby vegetation and olive groves, stony
hillsides, calcareous screes. 0-900 m. sometimes to 2200 m.
Distribution:- Much of Greece but rare in the west and lacking in the far north. -
Mediterranean region and SW Asia. Widespread and common on Crete.
Flowering time:- Apr-July,
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
