ARCTIUM LAPPA

Family:- COMPOSITAE

Common Name:- Greater burdock

Synonym:- Arctium majus

Meaning:- Arctium (L) Bear-like. A name in Pliny that refers to the shaggy hair.

Lappa (L) Goose-grass, referring to the burrs.

General description:- Erect biennial, with long, stout taproots.

Stems:-

1) 90-150 cm.

Leaves:-

1) Large, broadly ovate, cordate at the base, ± entire, green above, grey-tomentose

beneath.

2) Petiole, long, solid, pubescent to subglabrous.

Flowers:-

1) Capitula, in corymbose clusters with peduncles 3-10 cm.

2) Involucre, 20-25 x 35-42 mm in fruit, globose in bud, hemispherical and widely

open above in fruit, shiny golden-green, glabrous or subglabrous.

3) Phyllaries, numerous, rigid, subulate with hooked apices.

4) Florets, all tubular, about as long as the involucral bracts; pinkish-purple with a

blue anther tube.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes 6-7 mm, oblong, somewhat compressed.

2) Pappus 1·3-5 mm. with short pappus of free, scabrid hairs.

Key features:-

1) Involucre 20-25 x 35-42 mm in fruit.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Raparian woodland margins and ruderal habitats by villages 200-900 m.

Distribution:- Scattered on mainland Greece especially in the north, scattered

across the Aegean. A widespread Euro-Siberian species. Very rare on Crete known

from only one location in the west.

Flowering time:- June-Aug

Photos by:- Christopher Cheiladakis