ONONIS VAGINALIS

Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Ononis (Gr) A classical name used by the Greek physician

Dioscorides.

Vaginalis (L) Having a sheath, sheathed.

General description:- Woolly-canescent and glandular-viscid shrublet.

Stems:-

1) 20-50 cm tall; rigid, with ascending branches.

Leaves:-

1) Most reduced to sheathing stipules ± covering the twigs. Small, 1- or 3-foliolate

leaves present only above.

Flowers:-

1) Peduncles 1-flowered. longer than the leaves.

2) Calyx teeth, lanceolate, 1.5-2 times as long as the tube.

3) Corolla, 10-14 mm, yellow with purple stripes.

Fruit:-

1) Legume, oblong, 10-18 x c. 3 mm, 5-10-seeded.

2) Seeds, c. 2 mm, minutely tuberculate.

Key features:-

1) Sparingly branched with rigid stems.

2) Most leaves reduced to sheathing stipules

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Sand dunes at low altitude.

Distribution:- Recorded, as new for Europe, by Bergmeier & al. (2001) from the

small island of Koufonisi off SE Crete, A typical N African element, occurring from

Tunisia through Cyrenaica to Egypt, Palestine and Syria.

Flowering time:- June

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