BIARUM TENUIFOLIUM subsp. IDOMENAEUM

Family and Genus:- See- ARACEAE

Common Name:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Biarum (Gr) A name used by the Greek physician and botanist

Dioscorides for an arum-like plant.

Tenuifolium (L) With narrow leaves, slender-leaved

Idomenaeum (L) For Idomeneus, in Homer's Odyssey, King of Crete.

General description:- Low tuberous perennial.

Leaves:-

1) Lamina, 5-20(-40) cm x 3-15 mm, linear to oblong or spathulate ± appresed to

the ground, margins flexuous,) with or without a distinct petiole.

Flowers:-

1) Flowers, female, zone c. 3 mm. male, zone 6-8(-12) mm, sterile, well-

developed, numerous, mainly simple.

a) filaments, between male and female zones and also some (very variable in

number) above the male.

2) Scape, not more than 5 cm, underground.

3) Spathe, 8-20(-30) cm, oblong often recurved.

a) tube, 2·5-6 cm, cylindrical, whitish.

b) lamina, lanceolate or acuminate, not hooded, dark purple, tinged with green

outside, 3-5 times as long as the tube.

3) Spadix, slender, exceeding the spathe, purple, staminodes straight.

a) anthers, obtuse, dehiscing, by lateral slits.

b) stigma, sessile.

Fruit:-

1) Seeds, 4-5 x 2-3 mm.

Key features:-

1) Spathe, not cucullate.

2) Tube, not more than 1/3 as long as the lamina.

3) Sterile flowers, present above the male, as well as between male and female.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Dry stony hillslopes, rock crevices, grassy places. 0-1200 m.

Distribution:- Cretan endemic with limited distribution. Rare.

Flowering time:-.Oct-Nov. rarely in late spring or early summer

Photos by:- Vangelis Papiomytoglou

Status:-

Conservation status (for threatened species): Rare according to the Red Data

Book of Rare and Threatened Plants of Greece (1995)