PRASIUM MAJUS

Family and Genus:- See- LABIATAE

Common Names:- Spanish hedge-nettle

Homotypic Synonyms:- Stachys major.

Meaning:- Prasium. Meaning unknown.

Majus (L) Larger, greater.

General description:- Weak-stemmed subshrub, often scrambling in other

vegetation

Stems:-

1) Up to 1 m, erect, straight, slender, with pale grey bark, glabrous or glabrescent,

rarely hirsute.

Leaves:-

1) 2-5 x 0.8-2 cm, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acute, crenate or crenate-serrate, dark

green above, greyish-green beneath (rarely whole plant hirsute).

a) lower, cordate.

b) upper, truncate at the base, usually glabrous.

2) Petiole, 10-18 mm.

Flowers:-

1) Floral leaves, like the cauline, but smaller, or the upper entire.

2) Calyx, accrescent, up to 25 mm in fruit, glandular-puberulent or glabrous;

a) lobes, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, aristate.

3) Corolla, 17-20 mm, white or lilac;

a) upper lip, oblong, obtuse.

b) lower lip, with the middle lobe largest.

Fruit:-

1) Nutlets, 3-4 mm, ovoid-trigonous, black at maturity.

Key features:-

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Common in roadside thickets, open dry shrubby vegetation , olive groves

and open woodland, often in rocky places. 0-600(-1200) m. on various substrates.

Distribution:- Widespread and common throughout the Mediterranean. Widespread

and common on Crete.

Flowering time:- Mid-Mar to early June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton