LIMONIUM HIERAPETRAE

Including Limonium creticum

Family:- PLUMBAGINACEAE

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Limonium (Gr) Meadow-plant. A name used by the Greek physician

and botanist Dioscorides.

Hierapetrae (L) Possibly meaning its geographical location i.e

Ierapetra, Crete.

General description:- Perennial shrub with numerous stems growing in tight

groups.

Stems :- Erect 20-80 cm.

Leaves:-

a) Lower pale green.

b) hairless.

c) In a rosette.

d) Red-brown at the base..

Flowers:-

1) Small closely aggregated into, dense, crowded, terminal inflorescences.

2) Petals pale blue to violet

a) Forming a tube, exceeding only the upper limb by the surrounded bracts.

Click here for a more detailed description of this species.

Habitat:- On maritime sand and calcareous conglomerate. 0-5 m.

Distribution:- Cretan endemic. Southern coast from Tsoutsouros to Goudouras

Flowering time:- Apr-May, and perhaps also later.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton

FAMILY AND GENUS DESCRIPTIONS

PLUMBAGINACEAE

General description:- Herbs or shrubs.

Leaves:- Alternate or in basal rosettes, exstipulate.

Flowers:- Inflorescence usually cymose, often contracted into a capitulum, rarely

spike-like. Flowers actinomorphic, 5-merous, usually in bracteate spikelets. Calyx

tubular below, toothed (dentate) or lobed and at least slightly thin and dry (scarious)

and often pleated (plicate) distally, persistent. Petals united (connate) only at the

base, or the corolla with a usually short tube. Stamens united with the petals

(epipetalous). Styles 5, or 1 with 5 stigma-lobes. Ovary superior, 1-locular.

Fruit:- Dry, membranous, 1-seeded, surrounded by calyx, not splitting open to

release their seeds (indehiscent) or with circumscissile or irregular dehiscence.

LIMONIUM

General description:- Perennial, rarely annual, herbs or dwarf shrubs.

Leaves:- Simple, usually in a basal rosette, but densely leafy branches sometimes

present; leaves often absent at anthesis.

Flowers:- Inflorescence a corymbose panicle, with terminal, secund spikes, often

with non-flowering branches, usually with a reddish scale at the base of each

branch. Spikes of 3-bracteate, 1- to 5-flowered spikelets; inner and outer bracts

external to the spikelet, the middle one internal and often inconspicuous. Calyx

funnel-shaped (infundibuliform); limb thin and dry (scarious), usually coloured,

sometimes shortly dentate between the lobes. Corolla with a short tube, or the

petals united (connate) only at the base. Stamens inserted at the base of the

corolla. Styles 5, glabrous, free or connate at the base; stigmas thread-like

(filiform).

Fruit:- With circumscissile (opening by a slit running around the circumference) or

irregular splitting open to release the seeds (dehiscence).

1) Calyx infundibuliform.

2) Stamens inserted in base of corolla.

3) Styles 5, free or connate in basal half.

4) Fruit circumscissile towards apex or with irregular dehiscence.

5) Corolla-tube much shorter than lobes.

6) Spikes secund, the terminal not distinctly larger.

7) Stigmas filiform.

Status:-

Conservation status (for threatened species): Vulnerable (V) according to IUCN

1997

LIMONIUM CRETICUM

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Creticum (L) From Crete, Cretan.

Resembling Limonium hierapetrae, but differering in the following characters:
1) Stems ascending;
2) Leaf blade abruptly narrowed into the petiole.
3) Greyish-green.
4) Scabridulous,
5) 1-veined.
6) Spikes arcuate, lax.
7) Bracts and calyces somewhat longer.

Click here for a more detailed description of this species.

Habitat:- Coastal habitats with limestone rocks and yellowish marl, 0-10 m.

Distribution:- Restricted to Crete, where it grows in the northwest coast between Chania and Cap Drapano, and in the central-southern part between Timbaki and Kali Limenes

Flowering time:- Late April to July, perhaps also later.

Photos currently unavailable