ONONIS VERAE

Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE/Sect. NATRIX

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

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

Dioscorides.

Verae (L) True, real.

General description:- Ascending or procumbent annual

Stems:-

1) 6-12 cm., hairy and glandular.

Leaves:-

1) All 1-foliolate, glandular and sparsely hairy.

2) Leaflets of the cauline leaves orbicular.

3) Those of the uppermost leaves linear.

Flowers:-

1) Primary branches of the inflorescence 6-8 mm, muticous, 1-flowered.

2) Corolla, 10-12 mm, pink, distinctly exceeding the calyx.

3) Peduncle, scarcely recurved at the apex, muticous.

Fruit:- Legume:

1) 6-8 mm.

2) Seeds 8, c. 1 mm, acutely tuberculate.

Key features:-

1) Primary branches of the inflorescence 6-8 mm, muticous.

2) Leaves, all 1-foliolate.

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Habitat:- Dry open shrubby vegetation and open coniferous woodland on rocky

slopes, occasionally in fallow fields, 0-750 m.

Distribution:- Endemic to Crete (described from the island of Gavdos),

coexisting with the widespread and somewhat similar O. reclinata.

Flowering time:- End of March to May.

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