DRABA PRAECOX

Family and Genus:- See- CRUCIFERAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Draba verna var. brachycarpa, Draba verna var.

praecox, Draba verna subsp. praecox, Erophila praecox, Erophila verna

subsp. praecox, Erophila verna var. praecox, Erophila vulgaris subsp.

praecox

Meaning:- Draba (Gr) Acrid, a name used by the Greek physician and botanist

Dioscorides.

Praecox (L) Premature, early-ripening.

General description:- Herbaceous plant.

Stems:-

1) Often solitary, up to 9 cm in fruit.

Leaves:-

1) In a basal rosette, broadly elliptical to lanceolate, almost glabrous or with an

indumentum, sometimes with a few 2-fid or stellate hairs.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, indeterminate with flowers on slender peduncles 1.5-6 mm.

2) Sepals, 1-2 mm.

3) Petals, 2.5 mm white or reddish.

Fruit:-

1) Silicula, 3-16 x 1.6-3.3 mm, not more than twice as long as broad. usually flat,

linear or narrowly elliptical to obovate or suborbicular, glabrous.

2) Seeds, 0·3-0·8 mm, numerous.

Key features:-

1) Indumentum, predominantly of short, stiff, simple hairs, sometimes with a few

2-fid or stellate hairs.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Roadsides, dry open shrubby vegetation, field margins, open coniferous

woodland, dolines. 0-1900 m.

Distribution:- Widespread in the Mediterranean region ,SC Europe and SW Asia.

Fairly common and widespread on Crete.

Flowering time:- Mid-Feb to June, according to altitude.

Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis