SPECIES DESCRIPTION
TEUCRIUM DIVARICATUM
Family and Genus:- See- LABIATAE/Sect. CHAMAEDRYS
Common Names:- Spreading Germander
Homotypic Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Teucrium (Gr) A name used by the Greek physician and botanist
Dioscorides, perhaps for the hero and first King of Troy, Teucer.
Divaricatum (L) Wide-spreading, straggling.
General description:- Very variable, slightly hairy, tufted, perennial with a woody
base.
Stems:-
1) 10-30(-50) cm.
Leaves:-
1) (6-)10-25 x (4-)8-15 mm, coriaceous, ovate, rather shallowly crenate.
2) Petiole, shorter than the width of the lamina.
Flowers:-
1) Inflorescence, usually lax.
2) Floral leaves, middle and upper small, entire, often purplish.
3) Calyx, c. 8 mm, ciliolate.
4) Corolla, pink or purple, seeming reduced to 1 lower lip, divided into 5 lobes
(median lobe definitely curved), with a hairy tube conspicuously longer than
the calyx.
5) Stamens, 4
a) filaments, purple.
b) anthers,1
Fruit:-
1) Nutlets, smooth or reticulate.
Key features:-
1) Floral leaves, middle and upper small, entire, often purplish.
2) Petiole, shorter than the width of the lamina.
Habitat:- Rocky and stony slopes with open dry shrubby vegetation and open
coniferous woodland. 0-800 (-1500) m.
Distribution:- Fairly widespread in the Aegean area, W & S Anatolia ans W Syria.
Fairly widespread on Crete.
Flowering time:- Apr-June.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
