SPECIES DESCRIPTION
STYRAX OFFICINALIS
Family and Genus:- See- STYRACACEAE
Common Names:- Storax
Homotypic Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Styrax (Gr) Ancient Greek name, Latin storax.
Officinalis (L) Officinal medicine.
General description:- Deciduous shrub or small tree
Stems:-
1) 2-7 m tall, glabrescent, smooth, with a brown bark.
2) Young twigs, with stellate hairs.
Leaves:-
1) Altemate, short-petiolate,3-7 cm, broadly ovate to ovate-oblong, entire, obtuse,
rounded or shortly cuneate at the base.
Flowers:-
1) In short, lax, terminal or axillary racemes.
2) Inflorescence, usually 3- to 6-flowered.
3) Pedicels, 1-2 cm.
4) Calyx, nearly entire, campanulate.
5) Corolla, c. 2 cm, white, campanulate.
a) lobes, overlapping.
b) tube, usually very short.
6) Stamens, 10(-12), united with the base of the corolla.
7) Ovary, 3- compartments;
a) ovules, few in each compartment.
Fruit:-
1) Drupe, dry, spherical, densely grey-puberulent, c. 10 mm in dÆ, dehiscing into 3
valves;
2) Seed, solitary, large.
Habitat:- Constituent of scrubland vegetation, mixed scrub and as undergrowth in
open coniferous woodland on rocky slopes. 0-700(-1200) m.
Distribution:- E Peloponnisos and Sterea Ellas. - W & S Anatolia, extending to
Cyprus, W Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. Limited distribution on Crete mainly in
the west, but with a few location in the Central northern area.
Flowering time:- Late Mar to early June.
Photos by:- Yannis Zacharakis
