SPECIES DESCRIPTION
SCROPHULARIA PEREGRINA
Family and Genus:- See- SCROPHULARIACEAE
Common Names:- Mediterranean Figwort, Nettle-leaved figwort.
Homotypic Synonyms:- Scrophularia geminiflora, Scrophularia lesbiaca,
Scrophularia paniculata, Scrophularia sexangularis, Scrophularia triphylla.
Meaning:- Scrophularia (L) Scrophula, a glandular disease to which breeding
sows were said to be prone, many plants were used to treat this disease.
Peregrina (L) strange, foreign, exotic.
General description:- Short to tall, hairless or slightly glandular-hairy annual.
Stems:-
1) 20-70 cm tall, simple or sparingly branched, 4-angled, glabrous or somewhat
glandular-pubescent.
Leaves:-
1) Usually opposite, distinctly petiolate;
a) lamina, 3-8 cm, ovate, ± cordate at the base, coarsely crenate-serrate, thin,
subglabrous.
Flowers:-
1) In laxly arranged, usually 3-flowered cymes.
2) Bracts, triangular-lanceolate.
3) Cayx-lobes, triangular-ovate, acute, without scarious margins.
4) Corolla, two-lipped, from 5-8 mm long, with a rounded scale inside the upper lip,
dark reddish-brown.
Fruit:-
Capsule, c. 6 mm, broadly ovoid to subglobose, acute.
Key features:-
1) Stems, not winged.
2) Leaves, glabrous or subglabrous.
3) Capsule, subglobose.
4) Calyx-lobes, acute, without scarious margin.
Habitat:- Seasonally damp spots in open shrubby vegetation, scrubland vegetation
, olive groves, gardens and ruderal habitats. 0-800 m.
Distribution:- Most of Greece but ± lacking in the interior north. - Mediterranean
region, NW, W & S Anatolia and Crimea. Fairly widespread across Crete, but more
common in the west.
Flowering time:- Mar-May, occasionally later in irrigated areas.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
