DAUCUS GUTTATUS

Family:- UMBELLIFERAE/Sect. DAUCUS

Common Names:- Daucus bicolor, Daucus setulosus

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Daucus (L) Latin name for carrot.

Guttatus (Gr) Spotted, covered with small glandular dots.

General description:- Annual.

Stems:- 20-60 cm, usually several, branched, erect or ascending, turned backward

with the surface rough to the touch (retrorse-scabrid) or sometimes with stiff bristly

hairs (hispid) near the base.

Leaves:- Lower leaves 2-pinnate, the segments divided into short, linear, acute

lobes; upper leaves with linear segments.

Flowers:- Rays 8-25. Bracts usually longer than the umbels, not deflexed, divided

into lobes which extend from about a quarter to half-way towards the midrib

(pinnatifid); bracteoles linear-bristly (setaceous). Petals 0·6-2·5 mm, white, those of

the central flower of the umbel and those of the central umbel usually dark purple.

Fruit:- 2-3 mm; spines of the secondary ridges 1-2 times as long as the width of

the mericarp.

Key features:-

1) Bracts not deflexed in flower; usually longer than the the rays.

2) Spines on the secondary ridges of the mericarp dilated but not markedly

confluent at the base.

3) Spines 7-8 on each secondary ridge, twice as long as the width of the mericarp.

Habitat:- Coastal habitats, dry pastures, dry open shrubby vegetation olive groves,

etc. 0-900(-1400) m.

Distribution:- Throughout Greece, but most common in the Aegean region. - C & E

Mediterranean area from S Italy and Cyrenaica to S Anatolia, Cyprus and Syria.

Fairly widespread across Crete.

Flowering time:- May-July.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton

FAMILY AND GENUS DESCRIPTIONS

UMBELLIFERAE

General description:- Herbs, rarely shrubs.

Leaves:- Alternate; lamina usually large and much-divided; petiole often inflated

and sheathing at base. Stipules absent.

The primary divisions of the leaves are referred to as segments and the ultimate

divisions, cut nearly or quite to the midrib, as lobes. The lobes may themselves

sometimes be deeply lobed. The leaves are never truly pinnate, but are described

as pinnate, for brevity, when the lamina is divided to the midrib.

Flowers:- Inflorescence usually a compound umbel. Flowers epigynous, small,

hermaphrodite or unisexual, the plant rarely dioecious. Sepals usually small or

absent; petals 5, usually more or less 3-lobed, the middle lobe inflexed; outer

petals sometimes much larger than inner (radiate); stamens 5; carpels (1-)2,

usually attached to a central axis (carpophore), from which the mericarps separate

at maturity; styles (1-)2, often with a thickened base (stylopodium); ovule 1 in each

loculus, pendent.

Descriptions of umbels refer to the terminal, or other well-developed umbel: lateral

umbels are often smaller, with fewer rays, and may be entirely male. Bracts are the

structures which subtend the primary branches (rays) of a compound umbel, and

bracteoles are those which subtend the partial umbel, or the whole of a simple

umbel. When the stylopodium is described, the description refers to the

stylopodium of a hermaphrodite flower.

Fruit:- Dry; pericarp membranous or exocarp variously indurated; endocarp rarely

woody. Mericarps usually joined by a narrow or wide commissure; each mericarp

more or less compressed laterally or dorsally, with 5 longitudinal veins, usually with

ridges over them, separated by valleculae or sometimes with 4 secondary ridges

alternating with the primary; resin canals (vittae) usually present between the

primary ridges and on the commissural face.

Descriptions of the ridges of the fruit refer to the primary ridges, unless otherwise

specified.

Ripe fruit is essential for the certain identification of some genera, though with a

little experience the characters of the ripe fruit can often be deduced from a careful

examination of unripe fruit or even the ovary.

DAUCUS

Leaves:- 2- to 3-pinnate.

Flowers:- Bracts several, usually pinnatisect. Sepals small or obsolete. Petals

white, yellowish or purplish, the outer often radiate; apex inflexed.

Fruit:- Ellipsoid to ovoid, cylindrical or somewhat compressed dorsally; primary

ridges thread-like (filiform), fringed with hairs (ciliate); secondary ridges with a

single row of spines.

Key features:-

1) Both mericarps similar.

2) Fruit with broad, or tubercle-based prickles arranged in 1-3 rows on the ridges.

3) At least some bracts 3-fid or pinnatisect.

Sect. DAUCUS

Leaves:- Leaf-lobes petiolulate.

Flowers:- Umbels pedunculate. Styles medium to long, erecto-patent.