HYPERICUM EMPETRIFOLIUM subsp OLIGANTHUM

Family and Genus:- See- GUTTIFERAE/Sect. CORIDIUM

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Hypericum (Gr) Above-pictures. A name used by the Greek physician

and botanist Dioscorides for its use over shrines to repel evil spirits.

Empetrifolium (L) With Empetrum-like leaves. Empetrum = on rocks.

Oliganthum (Gr) With small or few flowers.

General description:- Very variable dwarf shrub.

Stems:-

1) To 50cm tall, erect to spreading or prostrate.

Leaves:-

1) Simple, opposite 2-12 mm, narrow, linear-lanceolate, in whorls of 3, glabrous.

Flowers:-

1) Yellow, often flushed with red in bud or on the outside in flower, 14-18 mm, borne

in branched or small clusters, solitary in some high mountain forms.

2) Sepals, with marginal black dots.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, with oblique vesicles.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Crevices and ledges of limestone cliffs, rocky road embankments with

open dry shrubby vegetation, outcrops in open coniferous woodland. 0-1100 m.

Distribution:- Endemic Crete and Karpathos. Widespread and common.

Flowering time:- Mid-Mar to early June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton