UMBILICUS RUPESTRIS

Family and Genus:- See- CRASSULACEAE

Common Names:- Wall pennywort, Navelwort.

Homotypic Synonyms:- Cotyledon rupestris.

Meaning:- Umbilicus (L) Naval, reference to the depression in the leaf surface

where the stem connects to the underside.

Rupestris (L) Of rocks, living in rocky places.

General description:- Herbaceous plant, very variable, medium erect perennial.

Stem:-

1) 20-50 cm, erect.

Leaves:-

1) Basal, orbicular, peltate, concave above, sinuate-crenate.

2) Cauline, progressively smaller, mostly reniform, dentate, the uppermost

sometimes linear.

Flowers:-

1) Flowers 7-10 mm, tubular, usually pendent; raceme fairly dense, sometimes

branched at the base, occupying more than ½ the stem.

2) Bracts, usually linear, about equalling the pedicels, but occasionally large and

leaf-like.

3) Pedicels 3-9 mm.

4) Sepals ovate, acuminate.

5) Corolla whitish-green or straw-coloured, sometimes tinged with pink; tube about

4 times as long as the ovate, mucronate lobes.

Fruit:-

1) Carpels tapered to a fairly long style.

Key features:-

1) Corolla pale yellow, greenish or reddish, scarcely constricted at the mouth of the

tube.

2) Stamens 10.

3) Flowers usually pendent; raceme occupying more-than ½ the stem.

4) Corolla lobes ovate, mucronate.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Somewhat damp ledges in gorges, rocky places in open dry shrubby

vegetation, deciduous wood-land and olive groves. 0-1100 m.

Distribution:- Widespread and common throughout the Mediterranean. Somewhat

sparsely scattered across Crete.

Flowering time:- Apr-June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton