Cerastium pumilum Curtis

Family: Caryophyllaceae
Flowering Time: Jan-Mar.

General Appearance

Cerastium pumilum Curtis, it is an annual, usually erect, up to 15 cm tall, reddish tinged or pale green herb. Stem beset with glandular and eglandular, sub patent hairs. Leaves oblanceolate to ovate-oblong or the upper ones ovate. 5-20 x 3-8 (-10) mm, eglandular hairy on both sides, attenuate at the base, apex obtuse-apiculate. Flowers in terminal, ± lax, many-flowered clusters. Bracts with only margins and apices scarious. Pedicels 4-8 mm long, mostly longer than sepals, densely glandulose. Sepals 5, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 4-5 x 1.5 mm, glandular and simple hairy outside, with acute, c. 1 mm apical part membranous, without It tuft of hairs at the apex. Petals 5, oblong-oblanceolate, shorter to slightly longer than sepals. apically 2-fid to a quarter of their length, with branched veins. Stamens 5 (-10), filaments alternating with and equalling to c. 0.5 as long as petals, dilated towards the base; anthers yellow. Ovary ovoid-oblong, glabrous; styles 5, internally stigmatic. Capsule straw yellow, narrowly cylindrical, semi-transparent. 6-8 mm long, dehiscing by 10, truncate teeth with revolute margins. Seed ± reniform, pale brown, c. 0.5 mm long, finely tuberculate.

Life Form

Th

Phytochoria

MED+ES+IT. The native range of this species is Europe to Central Asia, N. Africa.

Distribution in Libya

Al-Jafarah Plain:  (8 km) from Tripoli University, from cultivated field of Broad beans 1976

Benghazi Plain:  Wadi El-Ghattara 2010

Jabal Nafusa:  Misallata (Shaafeen) 2008  Msallata-Garaboulli Province 2020

First: Encyclopedia Flora of Libyan:

Jafri, S.M.H. & El-Gadi, A. (1978) Flora of Libya, Caryophyllaceae Vol. (59) Department of Botany, Al-Faateh Univ., Tripoli, Libya. Page. 42.

Second: Researches and PhD theses, master theses, Sorted by Newest:

Mahklouf, M.H., Sherif, A.S., Betelmal, A.G. (2020) Floristic Study and Species Diversity of Msallata-Garaboulli Province in Libya. J. of Advanced Botany and Zoology Volume 7 / Issue 3 ISSN: 2348-7313. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mohammed-Mahklouf, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341306643_Floristic_Study_and_Species_Diverisy_of_Msallata-Garaboulli_Province_in_Libya

Floristic Study and Species Diverisy of Msallata-Garaboulli Province. 2020

El-Rabiai, G.T., Al tira, F.M., Lamlom, S.H. (2010) Preliminary Checklist for the Flora of Wadi El Ghattara in Libya. Garyounis University Press Journal of Science and Its Applications Vol. 4, No. 1, pp 39-47, December 2010. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Wz8jpkIAAAAJ&hl=ar, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ALTsoucAAAAJ&hl=en,   https://journals.uob.edu.ly/index.php/sjuob/issue/view/71

Checklist for the Flora of Wadi El Ghattara in Libya. 2010

Mohammed, S.A.H. (2008) A taxonomic and ecological study of the plants of the Shaafin Reserve in Masalatah. Master Thesis. Department of Biology-Faculty of Arts and Sciences-Al-Mirqab University. Al-Khums. Libya. (In Arabic).

Piantae Tripol. : 78 (1914).

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