ALKANNA TINCTORIA

Family and Genus:- See- BORAGINACEAE

Common Name:- Dyer's alkanet

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Alkanna (L) From the Arabic, al-henna for Lawsonia inermis, the source

of henna.

Tinctoria (L) Used for dying.

General description:- Perennial, sometimes forming dense cushions. The whole

plant greyish-green, with a mixture of stiff, somewhat tubercle-based hairs and

short, eglandular hairs.

Stems:-

1) (5-)10-20(-50) cm, procumbent or ascending, eglandular.

Leaves:-

1) Basal, 6-15 x 0·7-1·5 cm, linear-lanceolate.

2) Lower cauline, oblong-linear, cordate at the base.

Flowers:-

1) Racemes, long, many flowered.

2) Bracts, not or only slightly longer than the calyx, oblong-lanceolate.

3) Calyx, 4-5 mm in flower, 5-6 mm in fruit, eglandular.

4) Corolla, blue, glabrous outside, tube as long as or slightly longer than the calyx.

c) limb, 6-7(-8) mm diam.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets, c. 2 mm. diam, reticulate-tuberculate.

Key features:-

1) Corolla glabrous outside, bright blue.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Rocky places in pdry open shrubby vegetation and open woodland, olive

groves, fallow terraces, occasionally on stabilised maritime sand dunes.

Distribution:- Widespread in the Mediterranean and throughout Greece. Rare on

Crete known from only a few coastal locations.

Flowering time:- Mar-June.

Photos by:- Georgios Dimakakos