DRABA CRETICA

Family and Genus:- See- CRUCIFERAE/Sect. AIZOPSIS

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Draba (Gr) Acrid, a name used by the Greek physician and botanist

Dioscorides.

Cretica (L) From Crete, Cretan.

General description:- Small, densely caespitose, scapose perennial.

Scape:-

1) 0.5-5 cm, villous, with indumentum of mainly stellateh hairs.

Leaves:-

1) In a dense rosette, entire; spring leaves 3-10 mm, lanceolate to oblanceolate,

ciliate with stiff hairs on margins.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, 2-13-flowered, remaining subumbellate in fruit.

2) Sepals, with 3- or 4-fid hairs.

3) Petals, 3-5 mm, pale yellow, distinctly longer than the stamens.

4) Style, 0·75 mm.

Fruit:-

1) Siliquae, 2.5-7 mm, oblong-elliptical, slightly compressed, latiseptate, with felt-

like cover of 3- or 4-fid hairs.

Key features:-

1) Petals distinctly longer than the stamens.

2) Silicula densely stellate-hairy.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Calcareous rock-crevices and ledges, stabilized screes, stony ground

with a thin soil layer, flat clayey areas 1100-2400 m.

Distribution:- Endemic to the mountains of Crete.

Flowering time:- Apr-May. Fruits remain for much of the summer.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton