BERBERIS CRETICA

Family and Genus:- See- BERBERIDACEAE

Common Name:- Cretan barberry.

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Berberis (L) Bar-berry, old Latin from an Arabic name for N.Africa.

Cretica (L) From Crete, Cretan.

General description:- Short to medium, suckering, perennial, with fibrous roots.

extremely spiny deciduous shrub.

Stems:-

1) 30-300 cm, with spines usually in threes (3-fid).

Leaves:-

1) Not more than 5mm wide, narrow-elongated, hollow and cylindrical, margin,

nearly always entire.

Flowers:-

1) Blooms, 16-24 mm, yellow.

2) Racemes, 10-50 mm, pendent, with 5-30 flowers.

3) Petals, 4-7mm long, with a median brown or pink vein.

4) Stigma, sessile or a very shortly stipitate.

5) Honey-leaves, c. 4·5 mm, longer than the inner perianth-segments.

Fruit:-

1) Berry, 6-8 mm, oblong, bluish-black.

Key features:-

1) Plant, suckering.

2) Racemes, not more than 15 mm.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Open shrubby places, rocky slopes, waste ground, open pine forest in

the montane and subalpine zones 800 - 2200 m.

Distribution:- N. Africa, E. Med, including Cyprus, scarcer in the European

Mediterranean. Fairly common on Crete, but mainly confined to the four main

massifs.

Flowering time:- May-July.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton