VALERIANELLA DISCOIDEA

Family and Genus:- See- VALERIANACEAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Valerianella (L) Diminutve of Valeriana.

Discoidea (Gr) Discoid, round.

General description:- Short annual, usually hairy.

Stem:-

1) Up to 30 cm., simple or branched from the base.

Leaves:-

1) Lower, oval to narrow spatula-shaped, blunt, untoothed to toothed;

2) Middle cauline, more markedly toothed;

3) Upper, narrower, lobed towards the base.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescent, pale mauve to bluish or white.

2) Bracts, oval, with a wide membranous and hairy margin.

3) Calyx, somewhat longer than the fruit, coroniform, reticulately veined, glabrous

outside, usually densely hairy inside, divided to about the middle or almost

to the base into 8-15 unequal, ovate-triangular teeth, each with an uncinate arista

at the apex; rarely the calyx with 6 subequal teeth.

Fruit:-

1) c. 2 mm, all in dense, globose, terminal clusters, obconical to obpyramidal,

obtusely 4-angled, villous.

2) Sterile loculi, about as large as the fertile, not extending to base of the fruit,

separated by an oblong groove.

Key features:-

1) Calyx, about as long as fruit, each tooth with only 1 uncinate spine.

Click here for a glossary of terms used

Habitat:- Dry open shrubby vegetation, roadsides, field margins, open scrub. 0-

1000(-1700) m.

Distribution:- Throughout Greece, but lacking in the Pindos. - Widespread in the

Mediterranean region and eastwards through Anatolia to W Iran. Widespread

across Crete.

Flowering time:- Late Mar to early June.

Photo by:- Sixela Xela