LEGOUSIA HYBRIDA

Family and Genus:- See- CAMPANULACEAE

Common Names:- Venus' looking glass

Homotypic Synonyms:- Click Here for a full list

Meaning:- Legousia. Meaning uncertain.

Hybrida (Gr) Hybrid.

General description:- Short to medium, often a rather hairy annual.

Stems:-

1) 10-25 cm, generally much-branched, ascending to erect.

Leaves:-

1) Alternate, oblong or oblong-obovate, margin, markedly undulate.

a) lower, petiolate.

b) upper, sessile.

Flower:-

1) Few, sessile, mostly in small terminal clusters.

2) Calyx lobes:

a) c. ½ as long as the ovary at anthesis, linear-lanceolate, acute or obtuse,

erect or patent.

3) Calyx teeth:

a) persistent, suberect, forming a crown much shorter than the narrowly ellipsoid

capsule.

4) Corolla, c. ½ as long as the calyx-lobes, reddish-purple to lilac.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, 15-30 mm, narrowed at apex.

Key features:-

1) Flowers, in panicles or small, terminal corymbs.

2) Corolla, about half as long as the calyx-lobes.

3) Calyx-lobes, ± erect in fruit.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Cultivated, fallow and waste land, roadsides, occasionally on open stony

hillsides or in open shrubby vegetation. 0-800(1200) in dolines.

Distribution:- Scattered throughout Greece, but less common in the north. -

Widespread in the Mediterranean region and SW Asia. Fairly widespread on Crete,

mainly around the four massifs.

Flowering time:- End Mar to mid-June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton