MINUARTIA ATTICA subsp. ATTICA

Family:- CARYOPHYLLACEAE

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- Minuartia verna subsp. attica

Meaning:- Minuartia (L) For Jaun Minuart (1693-1768), botanical writer of

Barcelona.

Attica (L) From around Athens, Greece.

General description:- Perennial plant, with a woody base, laxly tufted

(caespitose), hairless (glabrous).

Stems:-

1) 5-10 cm., downy, glandular, with 1-7 flowers.

Leaves:-

1) Up to 10 mm narrow, parallel-sided or tapering from the base to the apex or

thread-like.

Flower:-

1) Cymes lax, few- to many-flowered (3-20 flowers).

2) Stalks (pedicels) longer than sepals.

3) Sepals 2-5 mm ovate-lanceolate, usually glandular-pubescent.

4) Petals acute, widest below the middle, more or less ½-1½ times as long as the

sepals.

5) Anthers reddish.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule equalling or slightly exceeding the sepals.

2) Seeds 0·5-1 mm, brown, varying from almost smooth to having small, wart-like

projections (acutely tuberculate).

3) Shedding pollen before the stigma is receptive (protandrous).

Key features:-

1) Leaves somewhat recurved but never directed towards one side (secund).

2) Stems not black below.

3) Petals ovate, acute.

4) Plant woody below, covered with a waxy bloom (glaucous).

5) Sepals (2-)3-5 mm.

6) Leaves ± rigid (strict).

Habitat:- Rocky slopes, mainly on limestone, screes, open woodland. (0-)700-

2400 m.

Distribution:- Aegean Islands, Italy and the Balkan Peninsula. Rare on Crete

known only from the four massifs.

Flowering time:- May-Aug.

Photos by:- Phillipa Dean