HEDYPNOIS RHAGADIOLOIDES

Including subsp. rhagadioloides and subsp. tubaeformis. (See footnote)

Family:- COMPOSITAE

Common Names:- Hedypnois, Variable hawkweed.

Synonyms:- For a full list of Homotypic Synonyms click here.

Meaning:- Hedypnois (Gr) Sweet breath.

Rhagadioloides (L) Divided. (the inner achenes falling early but the

outer elongate and persist).

General description:- A variable low to short, somewhat hairy annual.

Stem:-

1) 3-45(-60) cm, more or less hairy, slender, spreading to ascending, branched.

Leaves:-

1) 5-180(-250) x 2-25(-35) mm, mostly narrowly elliptical to oblanceolate, entire to

deeply dentate or lobed.

2) Basal usually with winged petioles.

3) Cauline usually sessile.

Flowers:-

1) Capitula, dull golden-yellow, 13-16mm, solitary to numerous.

2) Peduncles more or less thickened.

3) Involucre 7-10·5 x 3-11 mm.

4) Bracts narrowly linear-lanceolate, more or less acute, the inner usually partially

enclosing the outer achenes and strongly incurved in fruit.

5) Receptacle without scales.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes 5-7·5 mm, often narrowed near apex, with minute, rigid hairs; outer

achenes incurved.

2) Pappus of the outer achenes usually a corona, that of the inner, of narrow, long-

aristate scales.

Key features:-

1) Involucral bracts strongly incurved in fruit.

2) Pappus of outer achenes usually a corona.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Dry habitats, cultivated, fallow and waste ground, sand-dunes, roadsides,

open dry shrubby vegetation 0-500(-1100) m.

Distribution:- Widespread across the Mediterranean. Widespread distribution and

occurrence across Crete. An introduced weed in parts of the Southern Hemisphere

and North America.

Flowering time:- Feb-July.

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis

This species is common throughout the Aegean area,very variable and has often

been subdivided. Autogamy and paitial apomixis has produced a complex morpho-

logical variation, but there appears to be no geographical pattern. Nordenstam

(1971) found a correlation between morphology and chromosome number: plants

with compact habit and distinctly swollen peduncles, often called subsp.

tubaeformis (Ten.) Hayek (syn.: H. tubaeformis Ten.), have 2n = 16, whereas lower

chromosome numbers (2n = 8 to 2n = 14) were found in plants morphologically

matching subsp. cretica (L.) Hayek (syn.: H. cretica L.) or subsp. monspeliensis

Nyman (syn.: H. monspeliensis Willd., nom. illeg.). Elsewhere this correlation

appears to be less clear, and for the time being H. rhagadioloides is best kept as a

single, variable species. ¹⁾

1) "Atlas of the Aegean Flora" Book1, Arne Strid 2016.