SPECIES DESCRIPTION
LIMONIUM FREDERICI
Family and Genus:- See- PLUMBAGINACEAE
Common Names:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:- Statice frederici
Meaning:- Limonium (Gr) Meadow-plant. A name used by the Greek physician
and botanist Dioscorides.
Frederici (L) Dedicated to the grandson of Edmond Boissier, Frédéric
Barbey, who seems to want to devote himself to the collections of his beloved
grandfather
General description:- Glabrous perennial, forming a pulvinate sub-shrub 10-40 cm
tall, with ascending to erect stems and a robust tap-root.
Caudices:-
1) 5-30 cm long, loosely branched and densely spirally leafy.
Stems:-
1) Slender, 5-30 cm long, rugose, green to glaucous, straight to slightly flexuous,
branched in the upper half.
2) Branches:
a) sterile, absent.
b) fertile, 0.5-3.0 cm long, curved to straight, directed obliquely upwards, forming
branching angles of 30°-50°, undivided.
Leaves;-
1) Fleshy to coriaceous, green to glaucous, rugose, often with undulate margins,
15-50 x 10-20 mm, obcordate to broadly spathulate, emarginate, retuse, flat, with
one central nerve or additionally with 2 lateral nerves.
Flowers:-
1) Inflorescence, obtrullate in outline.
2) Spikes, 20-100 mm long, straight to curved, inserted erect to obliquely.
a) spikelets slender, 8.5-9.5 mm long, composed of 1-4 flowers, arranged mostly
bi-serially, remotely to densely with 1-5 per cm.
3) Bracts:
a) outer, 2.3-3.0 x 2.4-3.0 mm broad, triangular-ovate, obtuse to acute, margin
broadly membranous; central part slightly fleshy, sometimes only at the base,
acuminate.
b) middle, membranous, 2.8-3.3 x 1.9-2.2 mm broad, oblong-elliptic, rounded.
c) inner, 6.2-7.2 x 3.5-4.3 mm, elliptical, obtuse, margin broadly membranous,
acuminate, forming a very narrowly triangular tip, 1.1-1.8 mm long, not
reaching the upper margin.
4) Calyx, 6.4-7.0 mm long, exceeding the inner bract by 1.5-2.5 mm;
a) tube, glabrous or sparsely shortly hairy, with 5 ribs ending in the middle of the
lobes.
b) lobes, c. 0.7 × 0.7 mm, nearly triangular.
5) Corolla, pink.
Habitat:- Usually grows on the cliffs near the sea, but can also be found in localities
distant from the sea or sometimes along the rocky coast, but always on limestone.
up to 200 m.
Distribution:- Endemic to Cyclades, Karpathos and Crete.
Flowering time:- Late April to July.
Photos by:-
