SPECIES DESCRIPTION
THESIUM BERGERI
Family and Genus:- See- SANTALACEAE
Common Names:- Bastard toadflax
Homotypic Synonyms:- Thesium graecum
Meaning:- Thesium (L) A name used by the Roman naturalist and philosopher
Pliny for a bulbous root.
Bergeri (L) For Alwin Berger (1871-1931) Curator of the Hanbury
Garden at La Mortola.
General description:- Biennial or perennial, usually with a thin woody taproot and
± woody stock.
Stems:-
1) (5-)l0-15(-30) cm, decumbent, procumbent or ascending, simple or branched;
glaucous. usually scabrid in the upper part.
Leaves:-
1) Alternate, 5-15(-30) mm, simple, entire, linear-oblong, pointed, glaucous,
sessile, a little fleshy, with smooth edges, without stipules.1-veined.
Flowers:-
1) Peduncles, usually 2-5 mm; partial inflorescences 2-5-flowered.
2) Bract, fleshy at the base of the pedicel; 4 or more times as long as the flower or
fruit;
a) bracteoles, more or less equalling the flower or fruit.
3) Perianth, infundibuliform, creamy-white;
a) tube, up to 2 mm;
b) lobes, c. 0.5 mm, triangular.
4) Stamens, 5.
5) Carpels, fused with each other.
6) Style and stigma.1
Fruit:-
1) Nut, subglobose, reticulately veined, 1,5-3mm long, with 8-10 veins, 5 times as
long as the persistent perianth
Key features:-
1) Fruiting stems, procumbent to ascending, sparsely covered with nuts.
2) Perianth, ± infundibuliform.
3) Nut, distinctly reticulately veined.
Habitat:- Dry, rocky slopes with open shrubby vegetation, scrubland vegetation
and open coniferous woodland. 0-700(-1100) m. frequently higher, usually over
limestone.
Distribution:- Throughout Greece, but less common in the W and rare in the
interior N. - Balkans and S Anatolia to W Syria. Widespread and common on
Crete.
Flowering time:- Apr-June(-July).
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
