VALERIANELLA OBTUSILOBA

Family and Genus:- See- VALERIANACEAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Valerianella (L) Diminutve of Valeriana.

Obtusiloba (L) With obtuse lobing.

General description:- Short annual, usually hairy.

Stem:-

1) Up to 20(-30) cm.

Leaves:-

1) Ovate to lanceolate, margins entire to dentate.

a) uppermost, pinnatisect, at the base.

Flowers:-

1) Bracts, broadly ovate, scarious, ciliate.

2) Calyx, at least twice as long as the fruit, ± scarious, strongly reticulate-veined,

lobes 6, broadly triangular, each with 3-5 uncinate spines, the inside of the calyx

cup, slightly villous.

Fruit:-

1) c. 2·5 mm, all in dense, globose, terminal clusters, broadly obconical to

obpyramidal, obtusely 4-angled, densely lanate.

2) Sterile loculi, about as large as the fertile ones.

Key features:-

1) Calyx, at least as long as the fruit, each tooth usually with 3 uncinate spines.

2) c. 2·5 mm, all in dense, globose, terminal clusters,

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Habitat:- Screes and gravel in gorges, rocky and stony slopes with dry open

shrubby vegetation , open coniferous woodland, terraced olive groves, field margins.

0-1100 m.

Distribution:- S Greece including Peloponnisos, Crete and the Aegean Is. Fairly

widely scattered on Crete.

Flowering time:- Mar-May

Photos by:- Steve Lenton