Family: Plumbaginaceae
Limonium
Citation:
Miller, Gard. Dict. edn 4 (1754).
Derivation: Latinised name from the Greek name leimonion for various meadow-growing plants.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: Statices, sea-lavenders.
Description:
Annuals or perennials, with one to several basal rosettes, rarely shrublets outside Australia, with each rosette with one to several erect inflorescences; leaves restricted to a basal rosette, with or without a petiole but usually tapering into a petiole-like base, lobed or entire.
Inflorescence an elongate to corymbose panicle, usually with scale-like bracts or rarely with leaf-like wings of the stems, with few-flowered spikelets borne on spike-like branches of usually secondary order; spikelets with 3 sterile bracts, 2 on the outside usually at least partly green and 1 between the spikelet and stem more or less membranous; sessile flowers each subtended by a membranous bract; calyx more or less completely fused into a funnel- or salver-shaped tube, petaloid, with a fringe spreading when fruiting, stiffly membranous to scarious with a more or less pronounced midrib; petals wedge-shaped to oblanceolate, fused into a short tube, collapsing after flowering; stamens opposite and fused to the petals.
Fruit usually an indehiscent cylindrical nut.
Distribution:
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Almost cosmopolitan; about 300 species particularly common in the Mediterranean to central Asian regions. They are usually common in saline habitats along the coast but also occur inland.
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Biology:
No text
Key to Species:
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1. Branches of the inflorescence winged |
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2. Leaves with hairs along the margin or glabrous; calyx tube with alternating triangular and bristle-like lobes |
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L. lobatum 3. |
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2. Leaves hairy; calyx tube with entire or almost entire margins |
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L. sinuatum 5. |
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1. Branches of the inflorescence not winged |
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3. Flowers 2-3 mm long; lower branches of the inflorescence sterile |
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L. myrianthum 4. |
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3. Flowers 5-7 mm long; all branches of the inflorescence with flowers |
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4. Midrib of the sepals not extending into rounded lobes; leaf apex acute, apiculate or rarely acuminate |
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L. binervosum 1. |
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4. Midrib of the sepals extending into pointed lobes; leaf apex rounded, obtuse to emarginate |
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5. Midrib of the sepals extending into the apex of the lobes; spikelets c. 2 mm apart and with 1 or 2 flowers |
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L. companyonis 2. |
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5. Midrib of the sepals extending half to two-thirds the length of the lobes; spikelets usually touching one another and with 2-5 flowers |
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L. hyblaeum 6. |
Author:
Not yet available
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