VALERIANELLA ECHINATA

Family and Genus:- See- VALERIANACEAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Valerianella (L) Diminutve of Valeriana.

Echinata (Gr) Covered in prickles, hedgehog-like.

General description:- Low to short, minutely hairy annual.

Stem:-

1) 5-20 cm tall, with 1-3 dichotomies.

Leaves:-

1) Basal, usually withered in fruiting individuals.

2) Lower cauline, spathulate, subentire, shortly ciliate or papillate on the lower

margins

3) Upper, oblong-oblanceolate, dentate or shallowly lobed.

Flowers:-

1) In dense, few-flowered, flat-topped terminal cymes and also individual in the

upper branch forks.

2) Bracts, oblong, herbaceous.

3) Fruiting pedicels and upper internodes, inflated and ± clavate, finally

disarticulating.

Fruit:-

1) In the branch forks, thinner than those of the cymes, all asymmetrical with

1 long, central and 2 short, lateral, uncinate horns.

Key features:-

1) Sterile loculi, well-developed, often at least as large as the fertile.

2) Fruit, longer than wide, with an oblong groove between the sterile loculi.

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Habitat:- Limestone screes and gravel, occasionally as a weed in stony fields of

traditional agriculture. 0-1100(-1700).

Distribution:- Fairly common on mainland Greece, Mediterranean region and SW.

Asia to Crimea, Iraq and Iran. Somewhat scattered distribution across Crete mainly

around the for main massifs.

Flowering time:- Mar-May.

Photo by:- Dr. Armin Jagel