CARDAMINE GRAECA
Common Name:- Southern bitter-cress
Homotypic Synonyms:- Pteroneurum graecum.
Meaning:- Cardamine (Gr) A name used by the Greek physician and botanist
Dioscorides for cress.
Graeca (L) Greek, from Greece.
General description:- Glabrous or hairy, annual or biennial plant.
Stem:-
1) (2.5-)5-35 cm, ascending to sub erect.
Leaves:-
1) Pinnate.
a) lower, with 4 or 5 pairs of cuneate-obovate leaflets, each with 3 or more
obtuse lobes.
b) upper cauline, with 2 or 3 pairs of 3-lobed or entire, lanceolate leaflets.
2) Petioles, auriculate at the base.
Flowers:-
1) Sepals, obtuse.
2) Petals, (3-)4-6 mm, white.
3) Style, 4-8 mm, winged.
Fruit:-
1) Siliqua, 35-50 x (2·5-)3-4 mm, glabrous, papillose or setose, somewhat secund.
2) Seeds, on a broad funicle.
Key features:-
1) Sepals, obtuse.
2) Funicle, of seeds broad, flattened.
Habitat:- Rocky slopes and screes, generally in semi-shade. 0-1100 m.
(occasionally to 1400 m.).
Distribution:- Throughout Greece except many of the Aegean islands. -
Mediterranean region (except Iberian Peninsula) Anatolia to Caucasia and N Iran.
Somewhat limited distribution on Crete, mainly around the four massifs.
.
Flowering time:- Mar-May
Photos by:- Steve Lenton