Echinaria capitata

Echinaria is a monotypic genus of herbaceous plants belonging to the Poaceae family. Its only species: Echinaria capitata It is native to Europe, Africa, and temperate regions of Asia.

Description

They are annual plants with stems up to 15 (-40) cm tall, erect or ascending, glabrous or striated. Leaves with a 0.2-0.6 mm ligule, ciliate on the margin; blade 0.5-9 cm x 0.5-2.5 (-3) mm, flat, with marked veins, retrorso-puberulent. The inflorescence in panicle of 5-15 mm. Spikelets 4.5-8 mm, slightly compressed laterally, with (1-) 2 (-4) flowers. glumes much shorter than the flowers, obovate; the lower one with 2 keels; the upper one with 1 keel. Lemma 4.5-8 mm, hairy at the base, with antrorso-scabride spiny apical ridges. Blooms from March to May.

Distribution and habitat

It is found in uncultivated fields, stony places, wastelands, on calcareous soils. In Southern Europe, North Africa, SW and C Asia; in Europe it appears in the southern zone, from Portugal to the Ukraine and Turkey; in the Iberian Peninsula in areas with a Mediterranean-continental climate; in Aragon throughout the territory except in the mountainous areas of the Pyrenees.

Taxonomy

Echinaria capitata was described by (Linnaeus) Desf. and published in Flora Atlantica 2: 385–386. 1799.

Etymology

Echinaria: generic name derived from the Greek equinos = (hedgehog), alluding to its globular and spiny inflorescences.

capitata: Latin epithet meaning "with a head".

Cytology

Base number of the chromosome, x = 7 and 9. 2n = 14 and 18. diploid. "Large" chromosomes.

Sinonimia

• Cenchrus capitatus L.
• Echinaria captainta var. pumila (Willk.) Willk.
• Echinaria captainta f. pumila (Willk.) Maire " Weiller
• Echinaria captainta var. Todaroana Ces.
• Echinaria pumila Willk.
• Echinaria spicata Mustaux
• Echinaria Todaroana (Ces.) Cif. & Giacom.
• Panicastrella captainta (L.) Moench
• Reimbolea spicata Mustaux

Common name

• Castellano: prickly head, contemptuous, echinary, devil's wheat.