FILAGO CONTRACTA

Family:- COMPOSITAE

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- Evax contracta

Meaning:- Filago (L) Thread.

Contracta (L) Drawn together.

General description:- Minute, grey-tomentose annual.

Stem:-

1) 1-4 cm.

Leaves:-

1) In a rosette, suberect, usually 10-25 mm, oblanceolate-spathulate,

with a sheathing base.

Flowers:-

1) Clusters of capitula 5-15 mm wide, compact, rigid. Embraced by the narrow

bases of the rosette-leaves.

2) Involucral bracts c. 3 x 1·2 mm, obovate or oblong-ovate. Nearly straight on the

back, subglabrous, brownish-yellow, cuspidate.

3) Phyllaries subglabrous, with an arista c. 0.5 mm.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes 1·1 x 0·5 mm. obovoid, pale brown. densely papillose, without pappus.

Key features:-

1) Rosette-leaves 15-30 mm oblanceolate- to obovate-spathulate.

2) Leaf distinctly longer than wide.

3) Involucral bracts long-acuminate or cuspidate, ± straight on the back.

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Habitat:- Dry open shrubby vegetation, fallow terraces, small clay pockets an rocky

hillsides, 0-800 m (to 1200 m in Crete}.

Distribution:- In Greece restricted to the Aegean area. - E Mediterranean region

from the Aegean islands and Cyrenaica to Cyprus and Syria, scattered eastwards

to Iraq and Iran. On Crete scattered and not too common.

Flowering time:- Apr-May.

Photos by:- Christopher Cheiladakis