ORIGANUM DICTAMNUS

Family and Genus:- See- LABIATAE/Sect. AMARACUS

Common Names:- Cretan dittany

Homotypic Synonyms:- Amaracus dictamnus, Majorana dictamnus,

Origanum saxatile.

Meaning:- Origanum (Gr) Joy-of-the mountain. A name used by the Greek

philosopher Theophrastus for an aromatic herb.

Dictamnus (L) From the Dikti mountains, Crete.

General description:- A densely white-woolly, tufted dwarf shrub.

Stems:-

1) 10-20 cm, slender, long, branched at the base.

Leaves:-

1) 13-25 x 12-25 mm, broadly ovate to orbicular, entire, lanate, the veins raised,

conspicuous.

2) Lower short-petiolate.

Flowers:-

1) Spicules, in groups of 3-10, dense, ovoid or oblong, arranged in opposite

pedunculate pairs, in lax panicles.

2) Bracts 7-10 mm, conspicuous, purple, longer than the calyx.

3) Calyx,

a) upper lip, subentire,

b) lower, shallowly toothed.

4) Corolla pink, the tube twice as long as the calyx-tube.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets x 4, seeded.

Key features:-

1) Calyx, 2-lipped. Upper, entire or subentire.

2) Stems densely leafy above.

3) Leaves, suborbicular, densely and softly white-lanate with branched hairs.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Crevices of vertical limestone cliffs. (50-)200-1300(-1700) m.

Distribution:- Cretan endemic. Widespread but rare.

Flowering time:- (July-)Aug-Sept (-Oct).

Photos by:- Steve Lenton

Status:-

Conservation status (for threatened species): Vulnerable according to the Red

Data Book of Rare and Threatened Plants of Greece (1995).

Vulnerable according to IUCN 1997.

Protection status (for threatened species): Greek Presidential Decree 67/1981.

Bern Convention, EU Dir.1992/43 (Ann.II/IV).