SAPONARIA CALABRICA

Family:- CARYOPHYLLACEAE

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- Saponaria aenesia, Saponaria graeca.

Meaning:- Saponaria (L) Soap-like.
                  Calabrica (L) From Calabria, S. Italy.

Plant:- Branched annual forming loose mats.

Stems:-
1) With many divaricate branches, glabrous below, glandular-pubescent above.

Leaves:-
1) Cauline, sessile ± oblong, slightly fleshy.

Flower:-
1) Inflorescence laxly paniculate with erect to spreading pedicels.
2) Calyx 8-12 mm, cylindrical, with short obtuse teeth.
3) Petal-limb spreading, bright pink; suborbicular, abruptly narrowed into a claw.
4) Pedicels and calyx glandular-hispid.

Fruit:-
1) Capsule ovoid, shorter than the calyx.
2) Seeds c. 2 mm, globose-reniform, tuberculate.

Key features:-
1) Without conspicuous, non-flowering leafy stems.
2) Stems much-branched.
3) Pedicels and calyx glandular-hispid.
4) Low divaricatly branched.
5) Calyx 8-12 mm.
6) Petal limb spreading, suborbicular.


Habitat:- Rocky slopes, gravelly road embankments, open coniferous woodland.
rarely in coastal habitats. (0-)300-1300 m.

Distribution:- Common in W Greece, S Italy, Albania, extending to NW Turkey.
Rare on Crete known only from a few locations.

Flowering time:- Apr-June

Photos by:- Wendy Copage & Uta Vrasna
SPECIES DESCRIPTION
GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED

Calyx:- A Collective name for the sepals - the outer whorl of organs in most flowers
Capsule:- Dry fruit that opens when ripe. splitting from the apex to the base into
separate segments known as valves.
Cauline:- Borne on the stem, of the stem.
Claw:- A narrow lower part of a petal or sepal.

Divaricate:- Branch at a wide angle.

Glabrous:- Without hairs, hairless.
Glandular-hispid With stiff bristly glandular hairs.
Glandular-pubescent:- Hairs tipped with small glands that secrete oil or some
other liquid.
Globose-Reniform:- Globe-like, rounded to Kidney-shaped.

Inflorescence:- The flowering branch or branches, flowers and bracts above the
uppermost leaves on a stem.

Obtuse:- Blunt, not pointed, ending in an angle of between 90 - 180o

Panicle:- A loose, branching cluster of flowers.
Paniculate:- Arranged or branched in the manner of panicles; borne in panicles.
Pedicel:- The stalk of an individual flower.
Petal-limb:- An enlarged upper part of the petals.

Sessile:- Not stalked. without a stalk. e.g. pedicel (flower) or petiole (leaf).
Suborbicular:- Almost circular.

Tuberculate:- With small, wart-like projections.

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