CYNOGLOSSUM CRETICUM

Family:- BORAGINACEAE

Common Names:- Blue houndstongue

Synonyms:-

Meaning:- Cynoglossum (Gr) Hound's-tongue, a name used by the Greek

physician Dioscorides' to describe the rough texture of the leaf.

Creticum (L) Cretan, from Crete.

General description:- Fairly robust medium to tall, softly hairy biennial. stems

angular, erect, branched above.

Stems:-

a) (20-)30-60 cm.

b) covered with stiff or coarse hairs (hirsute); or more or less covered with short,

dense, matted hairs (tomentose).

Leaves:-

1) Cauline:

a) oblong to lanceolate.

b) shortly stalked (subsessile) to clasping the stem, but not completely

encircling it (amplexicaul).

c) densely hairy on both surfaces. (tomentose).

Flowers:-

1) Cymes

a) branched flat-topped or convex bractless (ebracteate) flower clusters.

elongating in fruit.

2) Calyx-lobes:

a) 6-8 mm.

b) oblong, hirsute.

3) Corolla:

a) 7-9 mm.

b) purplish in bud, but opening blue, with conspicuous deeper inky-blue or purple

net-veins (reticulate venation).

c) tube, broadly funnel-shaped.

4) Stamens inserted in the upper part of the tube.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets:

a) 5-7 mm diam.

b) ovoid, without a distinct border; external face convex, beset with dense and

unequal barbed bristles (glochidiate).

Key features:-

1) Leaves densely hairy to tomentose on both surfaces.

2) Corolla 7-9 mm, with distinct netted (reticulate) venation.

Habitat:- Seasonally damp spots in dry open shrubby vegetation, olive groves, road

embankments and ruderal habitats, generally 0-700 m.

Distribution:- Throughout Greece. - Mediterranean region and SW Asia, through

Anatolia to Iran, Pamir and Tien Shan. Widespread and common on Crete.

Flowering time:- Feb-June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton