ORNITHOGALUM CRETICUM

Family and Genus:- See- HYACINTHACEAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Loncomelos creticum

Meaning:- Ornithogalum (Gr) Bird-milk, a name used by the Greek physician and

botanist Dioscorides for plants yielding bird-lime.

Creticum (L) From Crete, Cretan.

General description:- Bulbous plant.

Stem:-

1) 20-60cm.

Leaves:-

1) 5-8, often withered at anthesis.

Flowers:-

1) Faintly fragrant.

2) Perianth-segments, pale greenish inside, greenish outside and with a darker

green stripe on the back,

a) outer, 11-13 x 2·5-3 mm, flat at first, becoming inrolled at the margins.

3) Bracts, shorter than the pedicels.

4) Anthers, pale yellow.

5) Ovary, 2·4-3 mm, globose or subglobose.

6) Style, (3-)3·5-4·5(-5) mm, usually longer than ovary.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, loculicidal.

2) Seeds, numerous, globose to elongate-prismatic or flattened.

Key features:-

1) Ovary, globose or subglobose.

2) Style, (3-)3·5-4·5(-5) mm, usually longer than ovary.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

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

and screes in gorges. 0-800 (-1700) m.

Distribution:- Endemic Crete, Karpathos & Kyklades. Widespread on Crete, but

more common in the east.

Flowering time:- Late Apr to June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton