BELLIS LONGIFOLIA

Family:- COMPOSITAE

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Bellis (L) Pretty, A name used by the Roman naturalist and philosopher

Pliny.

Longifolia (L) With long leaves.

General description:- Perennial, with the inflorescence rising from the centre of

the rosette on a leafless stalk.

Leaves:-

1) 30-50 x 6-12 mm, oblong-oblanceolate, narrowed very gradually to a scarcely

distinct petiole, shorter than the lamina, 1-veined, crenate-serrate. Covered on

each side, in soft appressed hairs.

Flowers:-

1) Capitula 12-18 mm. diam.

2) Involucral bracts 4-6 mm, obtuse.

3) Ligules 6-8 mm.

4) Peduncles 5-20 cm, slender.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes, glabrous.

Key features:-

1) Leaves not more than 15 mm wide, bright green, 1-veined; conspicuously

crenate-serrate.

2) Involucral bracts 3-6 mm, usually obtuse.

3) Achenes glabrous.

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Habitat:- Grows in sheltered soil pockets in calcareous rocks, damp places by

springs, and clayey doline bottoms mostly between (200)6001900 m.

Distribution:- Endemic to Crete, growing in the Lefka Ori, Krioneritis, Psiloritis,

Dikti and Afendis Kavousi massifs. Believed to have been found at Amorgos,

Karpathos.

Flowering time:- Apr to early June

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis