POLYCARPON TETRAPHYLLUM
Family:- CARYOPHYLLACEAE
Common Names:- Four-leaved allseed
Synonyms:- Holosteum tetraphyllum, Polycarpaea tetraphylla, Mollugo
tetraphylla
Meaning:- Polycarpon (Gr) Many-fruited, a name used by the Greek physician
Hippocrates.
Tetraphyllum (L) Four leaved, with leaves in fours.
Stems:-
1) 4-12 cm, usually much branched.
Leaves:-
Flowers:-
1) Inflorescence lax, spreading, in branched clusters, white, tiny, 2-3 mm.
4) Stamens, (1-)3-5.
Fruit:-
tubes.
2) Seeds c. 0.5 mm, several, minutely tuberculate.
Key features:-
1) Annual to perennial, without a woody stock.
2) Stipules and bracts ± conspicuous and silvery.
3) Petals usually emarginate.
Habitat:- Dry, sandy and gravelly places, coastal habitats, streambeds, roadsides,
fallow fields and wasteground. 0-800(-1700)m.
Distribution:- Widespread throughout the Mediterranean region SW Europe and
SW Asia. Widespread on Crete.
Flowering time:- Mainly Apr-June.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
SPECIES DESCRIPTION
GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED
Acuminate:- Gradually narrowing to a point.
Capsule:- Dry fruit that opens when ripe. splitting from the apex to the base into
separate segments known as valves.
Bract:- An organ, often small and scale-like, but sometimes leaf-like, located
where the flower-stalk joins the stem.
Dehiscent - Dehiscing:- Splitting open to release the seeds.
Elliptic - Elliptical:- Forming an ellipse, widest in the middle and pointed at both
ends.
Emarginate:- Distinctly notched at the apex.
Glabrous:- Without hairs, hairless.
Inflorescence:- The flowering branch or branches, flowers and bracts above the
uppermost leaves on a stem. Inflorescences are very variable from one species to
another.
Keel - Keeled:- A prominent longitudinal ridge like the keel of a boat.
Oblanceolate:- Inversely lanceolate, broadest towards the apex and tapering to
the stalk.
Ovate:- Broad and rounded at the base and tapering toward the end.
Papillose:- Covered with papillae. covered with small nipple-like projections.
Petal:- The inner perianth segments when they clearly differ from the outer.
Scarious:- Thin and dry, paper-like, membranous not green.
Sepal:- A member of the outer perianth whorl in most flowers. The sepals
collectively make up the calyx.
Stamen:- Pollen-producing reproductive organ, typically consisting of a stalk called
the filament and an anther.
Stipule:- An outgrowth typically borne on both sides (sometimes on just one side)
of the base of a leafstalk (the petiole).
Triangular-ovate:- Egg-shaped, with the broader end at the base.
Tuberculate:- With small, wart-like projections.