BERBERIS CRETICA

Family:- BERBERIDACEAE

Common Name:- Cretan barberry.

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Berberis (L) Bar-berry, old Latin from an Arabic name for N.Africa.

Cretica (L) From Crete, Cretan.

General description:- Short to medium, suckering, perennial, with fibrous roots.

extremely spiny deciduous shrub.

Stems:-

a) 30-300 cm.

b) with spines usually in threes (3-fid).

Leaves:-

1) Lamina:

a) not more than 5mm wide.

b) narrow-elongated, hollow and cylindrical.

c) margin, nearly always entire.

Flowers:-

1) Blooms:

a) 16-24 mm.

b) yellow.

2) Racemes:

a) 10-50 mm.

b) pendent, with 5-30 flowers.

3) Petals:

a) 4-7mm long.

b) with a median brown or pink vein.

4) Stigma:

a) stalkless (sessile) or a very short stem-like structure (stipitate).

5) Honey-leaves:

a) c. 4·5 mm, longer than the inner perianth-segments.

Fruit:-

1) Berry:

a) 6-8 mm.

b) oblong.

c) bluish-black.

Key features:-

1) Plant suckering.

2) Racemes not more than 15 mm.

Habitat:- Open shrubby places, rocky slopes, waste ground, open pine forest in

the montane and subalpine zones 800 - 2200 m.

Distribution:- N. Africa, E. Med, including Cyprus, scarcer in the European

Mediterranean. Fairly common on Crete, but mainly confined to the four main

massifs.

Flowering time:- May-July.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton