ARENARIA GUICCIARDII

Family:- CARYOPHYLLACEAE/Subgen. ARENARIA

Common Name:- None

Synonym:- None

Meaning:- Arenaria (L) Sand-dweller.

Guicciardii (L) For Jacops Guicciard, who collected plants in Greece.

General description:- Scabrid-puberulent, slightly glandular annual.

Stems:-

a) 3-20 cm.

b) usually many, ascending or erect, rather densely leafy.

Leaves:-

1) Blade:

a) 3-5 mm.

b) ovate or ovate-oblong, acute or acuminate.

c) subsessile or petiolate.

d) 3- to 5-veined.

Flowers:-

a) 5-20 in dense clusters.

b) pedicels usually not more than ½ as long as the sepals, rather stout.

1) Sepals:

a) 4-6 mm.

b) lanceolate, long-acuminate with usually patent or recurved apex.

c) 3- to 5-veined, which thickened, and prominent.

2) Petals:

a) 1/3 as long as the sepals.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule:

a) more or less equalling the sepals.

b) narrowly cylindrical.

Key features:-

1) Bracts not forming an involucre.

2) stems 3-20 cm.

3) Sepals with patent or recurved apices.

Habitat:- Rocky limestone slopes and screes, sometimes along mountain roads.

(400)800-1600 m.

Distribution:- Endemic to Greece, scattered in Peloponnisos and mainland

northwards. On Crete reported mainly from the four main massifs.

Flowering time:- Late Apr to June

Photos by:- None available