GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED
Acute:- Sharp, sharply pointed, the margins near the tip being almost straight.
Apex: refers The highest or remotest point of a plant stem or root.
Bifid:- Divided at the tip in two (usually equal) parts by a median cleft
Bract:- An organ, often small and scale-like, but sometimes leaf-like, located where
the flower-stalk joins the stem.
Capsule:- Dry fruit that opens when ripe. splitting from the apex to the base into
Cauline:- Borne on the stem, of the stem.
Cyme - Cymose:- An inflorescence in which the main-axis and lateral branches are
repeated, terminated by a flower. Cymes may be regularly and symmetrically
branched or one-sided and asymmetrical.
Deflexed:- Bent sharply downwards.
Deflexed-Appressed:- Bent sharply downwards.and lying close and flat to the
Eglandular:- Without Glands.
Elliptic - Elliptical:- Forming an ellipse, widest in the middle and pointed at both
Glandular:- Covered with glands - often seen as tiny dots.
Herbaceous:- Refers to plant organs that are green and with a leaf-like texture.
Lanceolate:- Lance-shaped: more or less elliptical but broadest below the middle.
Oblanceolate:- Inversely lanceolate, broadest towards the apex and tapering to
the stalk.
Obtuse:- Blunt, not pointed, ending in an angle of between 90 - 180.
Obovate:- Inversely ovate, broadest towards the apex and tapering to the stalk.
Ovate:- Broad and rounded at the base and tapering toward the end.
Pedicel:- The stalk of an individual flower.
Petal:- The inner perianth segments when they clearly differ from the outer.
Scarious:- Thin and dry, paper-like, membranous not green.
Sepal:- A member of the outer perianth whorl in most flowers. The sepals
Stamen:- Pollen-producing reproductive organ, typically consisting of a stalk called
the filament and an anther.
Style:- The stalk that connects the stigma to the ovary.
Tuberculate:- With small, wart-like projections.
CERASTIUM GLOMERATUM
Family:- CARYOPHYLLACEAE
Common Names:- None
Synonyms:- Alsine glomerata, Cerastium viscosum var. glomeratum,
Cerastium vulgatum var. glomeratum.
Meaning:- Cerastium (Gr) Horned, (the fruiting capsule's shape).
Glomeratum (L) Collected into heads.
General description:- Annual.
Stem:-
1) Up to 30(-45) cm; with or without glandular hairs.
Leaves:-
1) 5-25 mm.
Flowers:-
1) In compact, cymose clusters.
with or without glandular-hairs.
with glandular hairs and eglandular hairs exceeding the apex.
up to 1/4 their length.
6) Stamens 10.
7) Styles 5.
Fruit:-
1) Capsule, 6-10 mm.
2) Seeds 0·4-0·5 mm, pale brown, tuberculate.
Key features:-
1) Pedicels without deflexed-appressed eglandular hairs, with or without glandular-
hairs.
2) Sepals with eglandular hairs protruding well beyond apex.
3) Pedicels shorter than sepals.
4) Flowers in dense clusters
Habitat:- Open calcareous woodland, soil patches in open shrubby vegetation,
rocky places, screes and gravelly mountain roadsides up to 1900 m.
Distribution:- Widespread and common throughout the Mediterranean C and C
Europe, SW Asia. Widespread and common on Crete.
Flowering time:- Mar-June
Photos by:- Popi Bormpoudaki
SPECIES DESCRIPTION
