SPECIES DESCRIPTION
SCROPHULARIA LYRATA
Family and Genus:- See- SCROPHULARIACEAE
Common Names:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:- Scrophularia auriculata
Meaning:- Scrophularia (L) Scrophula, a glandular disease to which breeding
sows were said to be prone, many plants were used to treat this disease.
Lyrata (L) Lyre-shaped. (reference to the leaves which are rounded
above with small lobes below).
General description:- Erect, subglabrous perennial rarely somewhat pubescent;
rhizome not nodular.
Stems:-
1) 50-100 cm, stout, sparingly branched, distinctly 4-angled and narrowly winged.
Leaves:-
1) 5-12(-25) cm, short-petiolate, usually with 2 or 3 pairs of small lobes at the base
and a much larger, narrowly ovate, irregularly crenate-dentate terminal lobe.
Flowers:-
1) Inflorescence, narrow, composed of 5-9-flowered cymes.
1) Bracts, ovate, not leaf-like; stem
2) Pedicels. up to twice as long as the calyx, glandular.
3) Calyx-lobes, ovate-orbicular, margins, serrate, glabrous; margin broadly scarious
4) Corolla, (5-)7-9 mm, greenish, with purplish-brown upper lip.
5) Staminode, more or less orbicular, scarcely emarginate.
Fruit:-
1) Capsule, 4-6 mm, subglobose, obtuse, mucronate.
Key features:-
1) Corolla, not more than 9 mm.
2) Stems, winged on the angles.
3) Leaves, usually with 2-4 pair of basal lobes; often cordate at base.
4) Calyx-lobes, with a scarious margin of more than 0·5 mm wide.
5) Staminode, suborbicular, ± entire.
Habitat:- By springs, streams and ditches, reed-swamps near the sea. 0-100 m.
Distribution:- In Greece and the Aegean region known only from W Crete. -
Mediterranean region from the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco to Sicily. On Crete
grows only in the western lowlands.
Flowering time:- Late Mar to early June.
Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis
