BIARUM TENUIFOLIUM subsp. IDOMENAEUM

Family:- ARACEAE

Common Name:- None

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Biarum (Gr) A name used by the Greek physician and botanist

Dioscorides for an arum-like plant.

Tenuifolium (L) With narrow leaves, slender-leaved

Idomenaeum (L) For Idomeneus, in Homer's Odyssey, King of Crete.

General description:- Low tuberous perennial.

Leaves:-

1) Lamina:

a) 5-20(-40) cm x 3-15 mm.

b) linear to oblong or spathulate. ± appresed to the ground, margins wavy

c) with or without a distinct stalk (petiole).

Flowers:-

1) Flowers:

a) female, zone c. 3 mm.

b) male, zone 6-8(-12) mm.

c) sterile, well-developed, numerous, mainly simple.

d) filaments, between male and female zones and also some (very variable in

number) above the male.

2) Scape:

a) not more than 5 cm, underground.

3) Spathe:

a) 8-20(-30) cm.

b) oblong often recurved.

c) tube, 2·5-6 cm, cylindrical, whitish.

d) lamina, lanceolate or narrowing gradually to a point (acuminate), not hooded.

dark purple, tinged with green outside, 3-5 times as long as the tube.

3) Spadix:

a) slender, exceeding the spathe.

b) purple.

c) staminodes straight.

d) anthers obtuse, splitting to release the seeds (dehiscing) by lateral slits.

e) stigma sessile.

Fruit:-

1) Seeds:

a) 4-5 x 2-3 mm.

Key features:-

1) Spathe not cucullate.

2) Tube not more than 1/3 as long as the lamina.

3) Sterile flowers present above the male, as well as between male and female.

Habitat:- Dry stony hillslopes, rock crevices, grassy places. 0-1200 m.

Distribution:- Cretan endemic with limited distribution. Rare.

Flowering time:-.Oct-Nov. rarely in late spring or early summer

Photos by:- Vangelis Papiomytoglou

Status:-

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

Book of Rare and Threatened Plants of Greece (1995)