FUMARIA PETTERI
Common Names:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Fumaria (L) Smoke.
Petteri (L) Named after Franz Petter (1798-1858), an Austrian botanist
who worked on the flora of Dalmatia.
General description:- Glabrous annual.
Stems:-
1) Erect to diffuse, usually much branched from the base with crowded lower
leaves.
Leaves:-
1) Ultimate leaf lobes, oblong.
2) Leaflets less than 1.5 mm broad.
Flowers:-
1) Racemes, shortly pedunculate subsessile, usually 15-20-flowered, rather dense.
2) Bracts, equalling the arcuate-recurved to almost straight, thickened fruiting
pedicels.
3) Sepals, large (3-4 x 2-3 mm), ovate, entire to dentate.
4) Corolla,10-15 mm, pink, wings of the upper petal and apex of the inner dark
purple; Lower petal with a very narrow, erect margin.
Fruit:-
1) Ovoid, c. 2.2 x 1.9 mm, slightly rugulose.
Key features:-
1) Leaflets, less than 1.5 mm broad.
2) Fruit, ovoid, c. 2.2 x 1.9 mm, slightly rugulose.
3) Bracts, longer than the pedicels.
4) Fruiting pedicels, usually slightly arcuate.
5) Corolla, 10-15 mm.
Habitat:- Cultivated and fallow fields, olive groves, road embankments and ruderal
habitats. Sometime abundant after fire in scrubland vegetation or coniferous
woodland 0-700(-1300) m.
Distribution:- Scattered throughout Greece, E Mediterranean reagion, casual in
Italy and S France. Rare on Crete currently known from only four very scattered
locations.
Flowering time:- Mar to mid-June.
Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis