SPECIES DESCRIPTION
THYMELAEA HIRSUTA
Family and Genus:- See- THYMELAEACEAE
Common Names:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:- Passerina hirsuta
Meaning:- Thymelaea (Gr) Thyme-olive (reference to the leaves and fruit).
Hirsuta (L) Rough-haired, covered in long hairs.
General description:- Evergreen, erect, slender, much-branched shrub usually
often dioecious;
Stems:-
1) 40-120 cm tall, with erect, spreading or decumbent branches, densely clothed
with imbricate leaves;
a) young shoots, white, tomentose, stems and older branches with conspicuous
leaf scars.
2) Branches, spreading or sometimes pendent, shortly white-tomentose, densely
leafy.
Leaves:-
1) 3-8 x 1·5-4 mm, ovate to lanceolate, obtuse to acuminate, erect, somewhat
coriaceous, ± imbricate and appressed to the twigs, almost scale-like, glabrous
and dark green.
a) upper, adaxial, surface white-tomentose.
b) lower, abaxial shining, glabrous or subglabrous
Flowers:-
1) Subsessile in small, ebracteate clusters of 2-5;
a) lobes, c. 1.5 mm, ovate, spreading, pale dull yellow within.
2) Hypanthium, 3-4 mm, densely tomentose, persistent.
3) Sepals, 1 mm, broadly ovate, glabrous above.
4) Anthers, orange-yellow.
Fruit:-
1) Ovoid. c. 4 mm, glabrous, dry, not indehiscent, usually enclosed in the
persistent hypanthium.
Key features:-
1) Mature leaves, hairy, at least on one surface.
2) Leaves, imbricate, appressed, white-tomentose on adaxial surface, more or less
glabrous on abaxial surface.
Habitat:- Hot and dry coastal flats, rocky and loamy hillslopes, ruderal habitats. 0-
300(-600) m.
Distribution:- Throughout the Mediterranean region, mainly near the coast. Fairly
widespread across Crete.
Flowering time:- (Oct-)Jan-Apr.
Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis
