Family |
Boraginaceae
Cynoglossum creticum
Mill.
Cynoglossum creticum Mill.
(First published in Gard. Dict., ed. 8: n.º 3 (1768); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3; 1983)
• Life-form & habit : Biennial to short-lived perennial hemicryptophyte; stems erect, 30–80 cm tall, usually branched above, densely covered with soft spreading hairs, giving the plant a greyish aspect.
• Leaves : Basal leaves oblong-lanceolate to oblanceolate, petiolate, forming a loose rosette; cauline leaves alternate, sessile to semi-amplexicaul, progressively smaller upward; both surfaces grey-green and softly pubescent.
• Inflorescence & flowers : Inflorescences scorpioid cymes, elongating in fruit; flowers blue to violet-blue, often with darker reticulate veins; calyx deeply divided, hairy; corolla rotate-funnel-shaped, with short rounded lobes and small throat scales.
• Fruit : Nutlets 4, ovoid to broadly ovate, flattened on the inner face, covered with hooked glochidiate prickles, aiding attachment to animals.
• Phenology : Flowers from March to June; fruiting from April to July.
• Habitat & elevation : Roadsides, fallow fields, rocky slopes, woodland margins and disturbed ground; from sea level to montane zones.
• Lebanese distribution : Widespread in Lebanon, especially in disturbed habitats, field margins and lower to middle mountain zones.
• Native range : Albania, Algeria, Azores, Baleares, Bulgaria, Canary Is., Corse, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., France, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Kriti, Krym, Lebanon-Syria, Madeira, Morocco, North Caucasus, NW. Balkan Pen., Palestine, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
• Diagnostic remarks : Distinguished by its softly hairy greyish foliage, blue flowers with darker reticulate veins, and glochidiate nutlets; separated from other regional Cynoglossum species by its larger, showier flowers and broad Mediterranean to Irano-Turanian distribution.