Plantago squarrosa

Karamun

Annual. Stem 3,5-15 cm, with erect, decumbent or ascending branches, scabrid-puberulent, eglandular, often reddish-purple. Internodes 0,5-1,5 cm. Leaves opposite, 5-15 x 0.5-1.5 mm, linear or linear-lanceolate, fleshy, canaliculate, scabrous-hirsute. Peduncles 0,5-3,5 cm, scabrid-puberulent, sometimes purple-red. Spikes 0,5-2 cm, dense, globose when young, becoming ovoid-ellipsoid. Flowers in whorls of 3. Lowest 2 bracts enlarged, 7-10 mm, hard, recurved, linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, caudate, hirsute, apex acute, sometimes purple. Upper bracts c. 4 mm, obovate-oblong, acuminate or acute, hirsute, apex purple. Sepals unequal, anterior 3-3,5 mm, obovate-oblong, hirsute, posterior 2.5-3 mm, ovate, concave. Corolla tube rugulose or not; lobes c. 2.5 mm, acuminate. Capsule globose. Seeds 2, c. 1,5 mm, cymbiform, shining rusty brown. Fl. 4-5. Open forest, sandy places, beaches, s.l.-10 m.

Greece, Aegean, Cyprus, W. Syria, Egypt. E. Medit. element.