HELIANTHEMUM SALICIFOLIUM

Family:- CISTACEAE/Subgen. HELIANTHEMUM/Sect. BRACHYPETALUM

Common Names:- Willow-leaved sunrose, Willow-leaved rockose.

Synonyms:- Aphananthemum salicifolium, Cistus salicifolius,

Helianthemum salicifolium var. vulgare

Meaning:- Helianthemum (Gr) Sun-flower.

Salicifolium (L) With willow-like leaves.

General description:- Low to short hairy annual, very variable, but usually much-

branched, erect or spreading.

Leaves:-

1) 5-30 x 3-10 mm. Ovate-lanceolate or oblong, flat, petiole short.

Flowers:-

1) Yellow to golden-yellow, 10-22 mm, borne in 5-20-flowered lax cymes;

2) Petals, rather narrow, as long as the sepals, occasionally absent.

3) Bracts, large and leaf-like.

4) Pedicels, patent in fruit, arcuate-erect at the apex, exceeding the sepals.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, obtusely trigonous.

Key features:-

1) Pedicels patent, arcuate-erect at the apex, exceeding the sepals.

Habitat:- Open dry shrubby vegetation, dry grassland, olive groves, faIlow fields,

generally 0-800(1000)m.

Distribution:- Widespread and common throughout the Mediterranean. Widespread

and common on Crete.

Flowering time:- Late Mar to mid-June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton