SANGUISORBA MINOR
Common Names:- Fodder burnet
Homotypic Synonyms:- Sanguisorba minor ssp. muricata, Sanguisorba minor
ssp. polygama, Sanguisorba minor ssp. balearica.
Meaning:- Sanguisorba (L) Blood-stauncher, reference to its styptic property.
Minor (L) Small, smaller.
Balearica (L) From the Balearic Islands.
General description:- Short-lived perennial with a slightly woody base.
Stems:-
1) Flowering, solitary or few, erect, 20-80 cm tall, sparingly branched rarely
leafless, usually densely hairy.
Leaves:-
1) Basal, in a well-developed rosette, imparipinnate.
2) Leaflets, (2-)4-9 pairs, of rather uniform size, usually 5-15 mm, elliptical to
suborbicular, dentate-serrate with 3-9 teeth on either side.
Flower:-
1) Flowering heads, terminal, broadly ovoid to subglobose, 12-25 mm in diam.
a) lower, hermaphrodite or male with yellow anthers.
b) upper, female, with reddish styles,
2) Sepals, bright green.
3) Petals, absent.
4) Hypanthium, 3-8 mm, usually angled, ridged or winged and with faces reticulate
or sculptured in various ways.
Fruit:-
1) Achenes, 1(-2), enclosed in the 4-angled hypanthium, which becomes dry and
hard.
Key features:-
1) Fruiting hypanthium, often rhomboid, angles winged, the surface irregularly
ridged or covered with acute to rounded processes.
Habitat:- Dry grassland, dry open shrubby vegetation on rocky slopes, roadsides.
0-1100(-1900) m.
Distribution:- C and E Mediterranean from Greece and Crete eastwards, including
Cyprus.
Flowering time:- Apr-June.
Photos by:- Fotis Samaritakis