SCLERANTHUS VERTICILLATUS
Family:- CARYOPHYLLACEAE
Common Names:- Annual knawel
Synonyms:- Scleranthus annuus subsp. verticillatus
Meaning:- Scleranthus (Gr) With hard thorns or spines.
Verticillatus (L) Having whorls (several leaves or flowers all arising at
the same level on the stem).
General description:- Small annual or occasionally biennial herb.
Stems:-
1) 5-15 cm.
Leaves:-
Flower:-
1) Subsessile in terminal and auxillary clusters.
zone, acute, almost without membranous margins.
3) Petals lacking.
Fruit:-
1) Nutlet, 1·2-5·5 mm, indehiscent, 1(2)-seeded, enclosed by the hardened wall of
the perigynous zone and the persistent sepals, which are shed with it.
2) Seeds lenticular, smooth.
Key features:-
1) Sepals usually 1-1.5 mm, unequal, incurved, almost without membranous
margins.
Habitat:- Rocky and gravelly slopes, roadsides, open coniferous woodland. 0-1200
m. (-1700 m. in dolines).
Distribution:- Mainland Greece, Peloponnisos, Kefallinia. - Widespread in S & C
Europe and the Mediterranean region eastwards to Syria. Rare on Crete, scattered
across the four main massifs
Flowering time:- Apr-June.
Photos by:- Courtesy of Wiki-Commons.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION
GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED
Ciliate:- Fringed with hairs - generally along the margin of a leaf, petal etc.
Hypanthium:- Cup-shaped extension of the floral axis (i.e. the receptacle).
Indehiscent:- Fruits that do not split open to release their seeds. not splitting open
to release their seeds.
Lenticular:- Discoid with a convex lens-shape.
Linear:- Narrow and parallel-sided. Narrow and much longer than wide, with parallel
margins.
Obtuse:- Blunt, not pointed, ending in an angle of between 90 - 180o
Perigynous:- When the sepals, petals and stamens are carried up around the
ovary on a hypanthium.
Petal:- The inner perianth segments when they clearly differ from the outer.
Sepal:- A member of the outer perianth whorl in most flowers. The sepals
collectively make up the calyx.
Subsessile:- Almost devoid of a stalk. almost stalkless.