Description & Remarks

Description   herbaceous, perennial plant, 15-20 cm tall. The roots are long and thin, on which small rounded tubers develop. There are few leaves, frequently organized in a rosette. The leaf’s blade is emarginated into deep lobes, to almost pinnate.  Its shape is oval in an external line, and its length is 4-8 cm.  The flowers are beautiful and prominent, opening in the morning and wilting at noon (a characteristic typical of the genus), organized in groups of 2-6 in umbel inflorescences. The flower is shaped like a plate, 25-33 mm across. The five petals are oval, purple-pink, with a black-crimson patch at the base (its size differs among populations), their length in 10-15 mm. The pollen dispersed from the anthers is orange, and is prominent against the flower’s dark center. The fruit is beak-like, opens into five single-seeded mericaprs with the help of a feathered beak. During dispersal, the one seeded mericarps are dispersed by wind like feathers, and are caught on the ground or on other plants.

Habitat  rocky slopes, wadis and plains in the desert. Is typical also to Zygophyllum dumosum plant associations.

Abundance and distribution  common in the whole of the desert region in Israel, except for the southern Arava Valley and the lower Eilat mountains, decreases further north in the Jordan Valley, and is rare in the southern Shefela.

Ori Fragman-Sapir, 2008

Translation Sheila Hattis Rolef

@More on this species in [useful_plants_c5 “Useful Plants” chapter C part 5], January 2008.

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