HIPPOCREPIS BIFLORA

Including Hippocrepis unisiliquosa

Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Hippocrepis unisiliquosa subsp. biflora.

Meaning:- Hippo (Gr) Horse (inferring coarseness or inferiority).

Crepis (Gr) A name used by Theophrastus for a shoe or enclosing wall

= Horseshoe (the shape of the fruit).

Biflora (L) Two flowered.

General description:- Subglabrous annual, mostly procumbent

prostrate or sloping upwards, generally much-branched from the base.

Stems:-

1) Slender, often several, up to 40 cm.

Leaves:-

1) Imparipinnate.

2) Leaflets, 3-6 pairs, linear-oval, truncate.

Flowers:-

1) 1-2(-3), axillary, 4-7 mm long, generally solitary, occasionally paired, subsessile.

2) Pedicels, glabrous.

3) Corolla, yellow,

a) standard, blade, attenuate at the base.

Fruit:-

1) Legume, 15-40 x 4-5 mm, broadly linear, straight or slightly curved, divided

into 4-8 horseshoe-shaped segments, often with blunt, colourless papillae.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Fields, hillslopes, waste ground, cultivated land, open shrubby land,

sometimes by streams. 0-900 m.

Distribution:- Almost throughout the Mediterranean region. Widespread on Crete.

Flowering time:- Mid-Mar to early June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton

HIPPOCREPIS UNISILIQUOSA

Homotypic Synonyms:- Ferrum-equinum unisiliquosum

Meaning:- Unisiliquosa

Resembling Hippocrepis biflora, but differering in the following characters:

1) Pedicels, pilose.

2) Blade of the standard distinctly set off from the claw.

Habitat:- As Hippocrepis biflora

Distribution:- Throughout the Mediterranean region. But on Crete currently

recorded only from the island of Koufonisi

Flowering time:- As Hippocrepis biflora

Photos by:- Saxafraga