Fagonia cretica

Fagonia cretica

Fagonia cretica is a species of the genus Fagonia. It is native to the Mediterranean region and the only one occurring in Europe as members of the genus.

Features

Fagonia cretica is a perennial subshrub, achieved the stature heights of 10 to 40 centimeters. The plant is almost bald and decumbent. The stem is angular. The leaves are 5 to 15 millimeters in size, lanceolate, dornspitzig and more or less leathery. The flowers appear singly in the axils. The crown is purple and sloping. The capsule is 5 millimeters long and five sharp -edged. The pens are 2-4 millimeters in size.

The flowering period extends from February to June.

Fagonia cretica is diploid with a chromosome number of 2n = 18

Occurrence

Fagonia cretica has its main range in the southern Mediterranean and occurs in all countries of North Africa from Morocco to Egypt. You reached Asia only on the island of Cyprus, Europe in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, in Majorca, in Calabria, Sicily and Malta, as well as in Crete and Anafi. From the Atlantic islands inhabited Fagonia cretica Madeira, the Selvagens and all seven Canary Islands, and reached the Cape Verde islands of Santo Antão, São Vicente, Sal and Boavista their southern border.

This species grows on disturbed areas as well as in semi- natural open vegetation on sand and gravel, sometimes gypsum, chalk or on saline soils. Your altitudinal distribution ranges in Spain and North Africa from sea level to about 1100 m.

Systematics and discovery history

Fagonia cretica was first published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. It represents the type of the genus Fagonia dar. Although it is very rare in Crete, she was there already found about 1592 by Giuseppe Casabona and portrayed by the illustrator Georg Dyckmann.

Documents

• Ralf Jahn, Peter Schoenfelder: Excursion Flora of Crete. With contributions by Alfred Mayer and Martin Scheuerer. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-8001-3478-0.