HYPERICUM EMPETRIFOLIUM subsp. TORTUOSUM

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.

Tortuosum (L) With complicated or winding stem growth.

General description:- Very variable dwarf shrub to 50cm tall, stems 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 longitudinal vittae or oblique vesicles.

2) Seeds, papillose or rugulose.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- A high-altitude race found in calcareous rock crevices and level, clayey

doline bottoms above 1300 m, in the Lefka Ori, Psiloritis and Dikti massifs,

Distribution:- Endemic W. & C. Crete

Flowering time:- May-Aug

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis