AJUGA REPTANS

Family and Genus:- See- LABIATAE

Common Names:- Bugle

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Ajuga (L) Corrupted Latin for abortifacient (in Pliny, abigo, to drive

away).

Reptans (L) Crawling along, creeping and rooting.

General description:- Rhizomatous perennial with long stolons

Stems:-

1) 10-40 cm, pubescent on opposite faces, alternating at each node, sometimes

glabrous at the base.

Leaves:-

1) Lower, 25-90 x 10-40 mm, ovate, entire or with rounded teeth (crenate).

Flowers:-

1) Bracts, ovate, often tinged with blue, the upper shorter than the flowers.

2) Verticillasters, crowded, usually 6-flowered.

3) Calyx, 4-6 mm, the teeth about as long as the tube.

4) Corolla, 14-17 mm, blue, rarely pink or white;

a) tube, exceeding calyx;

b) upper lip, entire.

5) Stamens, exserted

a) filaments hairy.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets, reticulatey-veined or transversely rugose.

Key features:-

1) Flowers, 4 or more in a whorl at each node

2) Middle and upper part, of stem pubescent on opposite faces, alternating at each

node.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Woodland clearings, stony and grassy places, generally on dry

calcareous soils. 0-1300 m.

Distribution:- Widespread across the Mediterranean, but absent from most of the

islands and scarce in N Africa and the extreme E Med. A very common European

plant.Very rare on Crete previously unrecorded.

Flowering time:- Late Mar to early July.

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis