LIMONIUM SITIACUM

Family and Genus:- See- PLUMBAGINACEAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Limonium (Gr) Meadow-plant. A name used by the Greek physician

and botanist Dioscorides.

Sitiacum (L) From the area of Sitia, east Crete.

General description:- Glabrous perennial with a laxly branched woody stock,

forming loose tufts.

Stems:-

1) 10-30 cm. slender, sparingly branched, papillose and rough, sterile branches

lacking or few.

Leaves:-

1) Basal, several, suberect, in a loose rosette, spathulate and 5-8 mm wide near

the apex, sometimes folded or canaliculate, tapering to a long petiole, rounded

to truncate or mucronate at the apex, coriaceous, glaucous, densely covered

with crateriform glands.

Flowers:-

1) Spikes, long and lax, with slender, 1-3-flowered spikelets 8.5-10 mm.

2) Calyx, 6-7 mm, narrowly tubular, subglabrous.

3) Corolla, c. 9 mm, lilac

Habitat:- Halophytic communities on rocky and sandy coasts, also in dry open

shrubby vegetation on dry, rocky slopes, mainly of hard limestone, up to 200 m.

Distribution:- Endemic, restricted to hot and dry habitats in the SE Aegean area.

On Crete restricted to the east.

Flowering time:- May-June.

Photos by:- Christopher Cheiladakis