TEUCRIUM MASSILIENSE

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

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Scorodonia cordata, Scorodonia massiliensis.

Meaning:- Teucrium (Gr) A name used by the Greek physician and botanist

Dioscorides, perhaps for the hero and first King of Troy, Teucer.

Massiliense (L) Pertaining to Massilia, the Latin name of Marseille,

France.

General description:- Greyish-tomentose rhizomatous dwarf shrub.

Stems:-

1) 15-50(-100) cm, erect, branched.

Leaves:-

1) Triangular-ovate, crenate, rugose, truncate or rounded at base, petiolate.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, up to 15 cm, simple or branched, rather lax; bracts ovate to

lanceolate, much shorter than the calyx.

2) Calyx, broadly campanulate, gibbous at the base, 2-lipped, glandular-pubescent,

not strongly veined in fruit.

3) Corolla, 9 mm, villous, pink.

4) Stamens, long-exserted, tube included in the calyx.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets, smooth or reticulate.

Key features:-

1) Corolla, pink or purplish.

2) Fruiting calyx, obscurely reticulate-veined.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Woodland of Cupressus, Castanea and deciduous oak, gorges, road

embankments. 200-1100 m.

Distribution:- Sardinia, Corsica, S. France, W. Balkan Peninsula. In Greece

known only from Crete, where it is mainly confined to the three main massifs.

Flowering time:- May-July.

Photos by:- Andriy Kovalchuk