ANCHUSA CESPITOSA

Family:- BORAGINACEAE

Common Name:- None

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Anchusa (Gr) Strangler or close. A name given by the Greek playwright

Aristophanes to an alkanet yielding red dye.

Cespitosa (Gr) Tufted, growing in tight groups, the bases of individual

plants touching.

General description:- Cespitose perennial, rough to the touch with stiff bristly

hairs (scabrid-hispid) throughout, with many of the hairs minutely tubercle-based.

Stems:-

a) 1-10 cm.

b) decumbent.

c) forming flat and hard mats up to 50 cm in diam.

Leaves:-

a) 20-50(-75) x 2·5-4 mm.

b) arranged in a basal.rosette (rosulate).

c) linear-oblong, obtuse, often with undulate margins.

d) hispid with tubercle-based setae.

Flowers:-

1) Cymes:

a) often almost stemless (subsessile).

b) dense, with 3-5 flowers.

2) Calyx:

a) 4-6 mm,

b) divided almost to the base into linear, obtuse lobes.

3) Corolla:

a) 10-15 mm in diam.

b) bright blue, with white faucal scales.

c) tube 6-7 mm, c. 1½ times as long as the calyx.

d) limb, 10-12 mm diam.

e) scales, oblong, fringed with hairs (ciliate).

f) stamens inserted in upper half of the tube and slightly overlapping the scales.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets:

a) c. 2·5 x 3·5 mm.

b) obliquely ovoid.

c) prominently reticulate and rugose-vermcose.

d) greyish.

Key features:-

1) Nutlets wider than long, or hemispherical.

2) Cespitose perennial with stems not more than 10 cm.

Habitat:- Calcareous rocky slopes, soil-pockets among rocks, flat clayey areas

1500-2200 m. Rarely lower in gorges.

Distribution:- Endemic to the Lefka Ori W. Crete. Rare.

Flowering time:- Apr-July.

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis

Status:-

Conservation status (for threatened species): Rare (R) according to the

Red Data Book of Rare and Threatened Plants of Greece (1995) - Rare (R)

according to IUCN 1997

Protection status (for threatened species): Greek Presidential Decree

67/1981