CAROXYLON AEGAEUM

Including Caroxylon carpathum

Family:- Amaranthaceae

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- Nitrosalsola aegaea, Salsola aegaea.

Meaning:- Caroxylon (L) Meaning, not known.

Aegeaum (L) From the Aegean region.

General description:- Dense, divaricately much branched, greyish-green shrublet.

Stem:-

a) 20-60 cm tall.

b) twigs slender, puberulent.

Leaves:-

a) lower, semi-terete, narrowly oblong.

b) upper, and bracts 2-4 mm semi-terete, ovate-triangular, subobtuse, pubescent.

Flowers:-

a) inconspicuous, solitary in the axils of the bracts, forming dense spikes.

1) Perianth segments:

a) broadly winged in fruit.

Fruit:- Not known.

Key features:-

1) Plant not more than 30 cm.

2) Branches divaricate.

Habitat:- Rugged, calcareous or volcanic cliffs,sometimes dominant in the epilitoral

zone on small islands, occasionally in dry open shrubby vegetation on rocky slopes

up to 450 m.

Distribution:- Endemic to the Aegean area. On Crete confined mainly to the

eastern coastal regions.

Flowering time:- June-Sep., frequently until late Oct.

Photos by:- Popi Bormpoudaki & Erastos Kampouropoulos

CAROXYLON CARPATHUM

Synonyms:- Salsola carpatha

Meaning:- Carpathum (L) From the Carpathian mountains between Vienna and Romania.

Resembling Caroxylon aegaeum, but differering in the following characters:
1) Leaves, longer, flat, narrowly elliptical, acute; spikes lax.

Habitat:- Crevices of coastal limestone cliffs.often on small islands. 0-100 m.

Distribution:- Endemic Crete, Karpathos & Kyklides. Rare on Crete currently known only from the far N E.

Flowering time:- June-August.

Photos by:- currently unavailable