LEGOUSIA PENTAGONIA

Family and Genus:- See- CAMPANULACEAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Click Here for a full list

Meaning:- Legousia. Meaning uncertain.

Pentagonia (Gr) Five-angled, (reference to the corolla).

General description:- Herbaceous plant, often hairy.

Stem:-

1) 10-30 cm tall, simple or branched from base, suberect.

Leaves:-

1) alternate, simple, oblong, margins, slightly undulate, sessile.

a) basal, sometimes petiolate.

Flower:-

1) Actinomorphic, from 20-30 mm, connate in racemes or in loose panicles, violet

with whitish base.

2) Corolla, 15-18 mm.

a) petals, fused into a tube, with 5 spread-out, stellate lobes.

3) calyx-lobes:

a) ¼-½ as long as the ovary at anthesis.

4) Filaments, pubescent at the base.

Fruit:-

1) Capsules, from 20-30 mm long, not narrowed at the top.

Key features:-

1) Calyx-lobes, 1/3-1/2 as long as the ovary at anthesis.

2) Capsule, 20-30 mm, not narrowed at apex.

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.usually 0-1600 m.

Distribution:- Scattered in Peloponnisos. - E Balkan Peninsula, Anatolia and

elsewhere in SW Asia. Widespread but not common on Crete.

Flowering time:- Apr-June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton