PULICARIA VULGARIS

Family:- COMPOSITAE

Common Names:- Small fleabane

Synonyms:- Inula pulicaria.

Meaning:- Pulicaria (L) Fleabane (for a plant that wards off fleas).

Vulgaris (L) Vulgar, common.

General description:- Annual, more or less hairy, often with glandular hairs.

Stems:-

1) 7-30(-45) cm, greenish or brownish, pubescent; branches erecto-patent,

overtopping the main stem.

Leaves:-

1) Basal, oblanceolate, petiolate, withered at anthesis.

2) Middle and upper,lanceolate to elliptical, gradually narrowed to the

semiamplexicaul but not auriculate base, soft and usually undulate.

Flowers:-

1) Capitula, usually numerous, 0.8-1 cm diam, hemispherical, peduncles up to c.

1.5 cm, scarcely thickened after anthesis, usually with several bracts.

2) Involucral bracts, linear to linear-lanceolate, villous and glandular.

a) inner, with a setaceous apex.

3) Ligules about equalling the involucre, erect.

Fruit:-

1) Achene c. 1·5 mm, with sparse, appressed hairs.

2) Pappus of scales, connate for at least 1/2 their length.

Key features:-

1) Pappus with 8-10 hairs, the surrounding scales connate for at least 1/2 their

length.

2) Leaves lanceolate to elliptical, soft, usually undulate.

3) Hairs on achenes appressed.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Seasonally wet, sandy and loamy places by streams and vernal pools,

mostly in coastal areas, but occasionally to 850 m.

Distribution:- Scattered in Greece, mostly in the north. - A widespread Euro-

Siberian species, northwards to S Scandinavia, throughout temperate Asia. Rare on

Crete currently known from only one location near the Lasithi plateau.

Flowering time:- June-Aug.

Photos by:- Courtesy of Wiki-Commons