SPECIES DESCRIPTION
HELMINTHOTHECA ECHIOIDES
Family:- COMPOSITAE
Common Names:- Bristly ox-tongue
Synonyms:- Crepis echioides, Helminthia echioides, Helminthia tuberculata,
Picris echioides.
Meaning:- Helminthotheca (Gr) Worm-like-case (the beaked fruits).
Echioides (L) Resembling echium.
General description:- Medium to tall, bristly annual or biennial, each bristle
arising from a pimple.
Stem:-
1) 30-90 cm, with rigid, moderately branched.
Leaves:-
1) With numerous unequal, rigid hairs, the larger thickened at the base or tubercle-
based, and often with scattered spines.
2) Basal, 35-250 x 15-100 mm, elliptical to oblanceolate or oblong-oblanceolate,
obtuse to acute, sinuate to dentate, narrowed at base into a winged petiole.
3) Lower cauline, similar to basal but with semiamplexicaul petioles, the upper
lanceolate to ovate, sessile, amplexicaul.
Flowers:-
1) Capitula, solitary or in small clusters.
2) Involucre 12-20 x 10-15 mm.
3) Bracts, with pectinate-ciliate margins.
a) outer ovate-cordate, acuminate.
b) inner lanceolate, slightly longer than the outer.
4) Florets ligulate, yellow.
Fruit:-
1) Achenes 5-7 mm, transversely muricate, with a beak about as long as the body,
a) inner reddish-brown, more or less straight.
b) outer whitish, curved.
Key features:-
1) Peduncles not thickened.
2) At least some involucral bracts pectinate-ciliate or spiny-ciliate.
3) Outer involucral bracts more than half as long as inner.
Habitat:- Damp coastal areas, roadsides, ditches, field margins and ruderal
habitats. 0-800 m.
Distribution:- Throughout Greece, common in the south and west. - Much of
Europe ans SW Asia. Fairly well scattered across Crete, but not too common.
Flowering time:- Mid Apr to July, sometimes later.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
