HYPERICUM TRICHOCAULON

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

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.

Trichocaulon (Gr) With a hairy-stem.

Stems:-

1) 5-25(-45) cm, procumbent or ascending, slender, sometimes rooting at the base.

Leaves:-

1) 5-11(-14) mm, ovate-oblong to linear, sessile or shortly petiolate, margins entire.

Flowers:-

1) May have a reddish underside to the otherwise yellow petals.

2) Sepals obtuse, black-glandular-denticulate to entire.

3) Sepals and petals, sometimes with black dots or streaks scattered over the

whole surface.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, sometimes with vittae, and with faint, round elongated vesicles or

almost smooth.

Key features:-

1) Sepals, entire or glandular-denticulate or fimbriate.

2) Leaves, 5-14 mm, smooth.

3) Petals, 6-12 mm.

4) Seeds, longitudinally grooved.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Rocky and stony slopes with open dry shrubby vegetation, rock ledges

and flat clayey areas. (0-) 300-1700(-2000) m.

Distribution:- Endemic to Crete, occurring mainly in the Lefka Ori, Kedros and

Psiloritis massifs, with observations from both Dikti and Afendis Kavousi.

Flowering time:- Mid-Apr to June.

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis