MINUARTIA ATTICA subsp. ATTICA

Family and Genus:- See- CARYOPHYLLACEAE

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Minuartia verna subsp. attica

Meaning:- Minuartia (L) For Jaun Minuart (1693-1768), botanical writer of

Barcelona.

Attica (L) From around Athens, Greece.

General description:- Perennial plant, with a woody base, laxly tufted

(caespitose), hairless (glabrous).

Stems:-

1) 5-10 cm., downy, glandular, with 1-7 flowers.

Leaves:-

1) Up to 10 mm, linear to oblanceolate.

Flower:-

1) Cymes, lax, few- to many-flowered (3-20 flowers).

2) Pedicels, longer than the sepals.

3) Sepals, 2-5 mm ovate-lanceolate, usually glandular-pubescent.

4) Petals, acute, widest below the middle, more or less ½-1½ times as long as the

sepals.

5) Anthers, reddish.

6) Protandrous:- i.e. shedding pollen before the stigma is receptive.

Fruit:-

1) Capsule, equalling or slightly exceeding the sepals.

2) Seeds, 0·5-1 mm, brown, varying from almost smooth to acutely tuberculate.

Key features:-

1) Leaves, somewhat recurved but never secund.

2) Stems, not black below.

3) Petals, ovate, acute.

4) Plant, woody below, glaucous.

5) Sepals, (2-)3-5 mm.

6) Leaves, ± rigid.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Rocky slopes, mainly on limestone, screes, open woodland. (0-)700-

2400 m.

Distribution:- Aegean Islands, Italy and the Balkan Peninsula. Rare on Crete

known only from the four massifs.

Flowering time:- May-Aug.

Photos by:- Phillipa Dean