CRAMBE HISPANICA

Family and Genus:- See- CRUCIFERAE

Common Name:- Spanish seakale

Homotypic Synonyms:- Cochlearia hispanica, Rapistrum hispanicum.

Meaning:- Crambe. Meaning unknown

Hispanica (L) From Spain, Spanish.

General description:- Slender, usually densely hispid annual.

Stems:-

1) Simple or sparingly branched, 30-90 cm tall, densely and patently hispid below.

Leaves:-

1) Lower,up to 15 x 7 cm, lyrate-pinnatisect with (0-)1-2 pairs of small lateral lobes

and a large, reniform-orbicular terminal lobe.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, branched, ebracteate, much elongating in fruit.

2) Petals, 3-4 mm, white, sometimes purplish at base.

3) Fruiting, pedicels slender, 2-4 times longer than fruit.

4) Filaments of the inner stamens usually with a tooth-like appendage.

Fruit:-

1) Siliculae, transversely jointed; lower segment small, sterile; upper segment c. 3

mm, globose, 1-seeded, becoming fleshy and blackish when ripe.

Key features:-

1) Lower segment of silicula shorter than the upper.

2) Filaments of the inner stamens usually with a tooth-like appendage.

3) Lower leaves with a large, ± reniform terminal lobe and 0-2 pairs of small lateral

lobes.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Open dry shrubby vegetation, woodland margins, olive groves, roadsides,

ruderal vegetation. 0-300 (-600) m.

Distribution:- Scattered in coastal areas of W Greece. - Mediterranean area from

Portugal and morocco to W Syria, Previously unrecorded from Crete.

Flowering time:- (Jan-)Mar-May.

Photos by:- Dr. Armin Jagel