CORONOPUS SQUAMATUS

Family and Genus:- See- CRUCIFERAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Carara coronopus, Cochlearia coronopus, Lepidium

coronopus, Myagrum coronopus, Senebiera coronopus.

Meaning:- Coronopus (Gr) A name used by the Greek philosopher Theophrastus

for crowfoot, reference to the leaf-shape.

Squamatus (L) With small scale-like leaves or bracts.

General description:- Annual or biennial.

Stem:-

1) 5-15(-30) cm, decumbent to ascending, glabrous or sparsely pilose.

Leaves:-

1) Lower, pinnati-partite, the segments usually pinnatifid.

Flowers:-

1) Raceme usually crowded in fruit.

2) Pedicels up to 2 mm.

3) Petals 1-2 mm, longer than the sepals.

4) Stamens, fertile, 6.

5) Style 0·3-0·5 mm.

Fruit:-

1) Silicula 2-3 x 3-4·5 mm, almost reniform, apiculate, strongly reticulate or ridged,

or verrucose.

Key features:-

1) Petals exceeding the sepals.

2) Silicula 2.5 x 3.5 mm, rugose with raised ridges, apiculate.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Brackish coastal flats, dry riverbeds, gravelly roadsides, dolines, ruderal

habitats. 0-1300 m.

Distribution:- Scattered throughout Greece. probably native to the Mediterranean

region, now almost a cosmopolitan weed. Scattered distribution on Crete around

coastal area, and also to 1100 m. in the Psiloritis and Dikti massifs.

Flowering time:- Late Mar to June.

Photos by:- Zacharias Angourakis