SPECIES DESCRIPTION
SPERGULARIA BOCCONEI
Including Spergularia diandra
Family and Genus:- See- CARYOPHYLLACEAE
Common Names:- Greek sand-spurrey
Homotypic Synonyms:- Alsine bocconei, Arenaria bocconei, Spergula
bocconei.
Meaning:- Spergularia (L) Resembling spergula.
Bocconei (L) For Dr. Paolo Boccone (1633-1704), Sicilian physician
and botanist.
General description:- Low to short, rather slender annual or biennial.
Stems:-
1) Ascending to erect, 5-25 cm, glandular-pubescent especially in the
inflorescence.
Leaves:-
1) Opposite, linear, fleshy, usually without fascicles of smaller leaves in their axils.
2) Stipules, triangular-ovate, scarious.
Flowers:-
1) Inflorescence, usually many-flowered.
2) Sepals, 2-3.5(-4) mm.
3) Petals, usually distinctly shorter than the sepals, pale pink.
4) Stamens, 2-5(-8).
Fruit:-
1) Capsule, 2-3.5 mm, broadly ovoid, pale.
2) Seeds, 0.35-0.5 mm, greyish or brown, unwinged, finely papillate to tuberculate.
Key features:-
1) Seeds, pale greyish-brown, tuberculate.
2) Petals, white, or pink above and white beneath.
Habitat:- Sand, silt and marshy places near the sea, often ruderal in coastal towns
and villages, occasionally along roads and tracks some distance inland, to 500 m.
Distribution:- Widespread throughout the Mediterranean region, Atlantic Islands
and SW Asia. Widespread and common on Crete.
Flowering time:- Mainly Apr-June.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
SPERGULARIA DIANDRA
Homotypic Synonyms:- There are 24 synonyms See.
Meaning:- Diandra (Gr) Two-stamened.
Resembling Spergularia bocconei, but differering in the following characters.
1) Small and more slender.
2) Leaves, narrowly linear, scarcely fleshy.
3) Inflorescence, few-flowered.
4) Capsule, globose, glossy.
5) Seeds, 0.45-0.55 mm, black.
Habitat:- Sandy, clayey and rocky seashores, occasionally in ruderal habitats
some distance inland, to 200 m. On Crete sparsely scattered around coastal areas.
Distribution:- In Greece not recorded outside the Aegean area.-Widespespread but
scattered in the Mediterranean region and SW to C Asia..
Flowering time:- (March)April-June.
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