Tordylium maximum L. Hartwort

Tordylium maximum L. - Hartwort

Scientific Description:

Annual or biennial. Stems 30−120 cm high, with deflexed bristly hairs, striate, usually branching from the middle upwards. Basal and lower cauline leaves 2-pinnate with 2−3 pairs of ovate to cuneate-elliptic, sessile, crenate leaflets, terminal cuneate-elliptic; upper cauline leaves with lanceolate to linear, coarsely dentate segments, cuneate at the base, sometimes only terminal segments present. Umbels 5−15-rayed, rays stiff, scabrous, unequal. Bracts 5−7, linear, scabrous, deflexed; bracteoles 5, very unequal, linear, scabrous, longest ones ± equal to or shorter than fruiting pedicels. Flowers white, 12−16 per umbellule. Mericarps elliptic to suborbicular, 5−8 mm long, 4−6 mm broad; abaxial face with stiff adpressed hairs, margins thickened, smooth or slightly moniliform. Dorsal vittae 4, commissural.

 

Flowering time: May−June.

Habitat: Fields, waste ground, roadsides, 500−1200 m.

 

Reference:
Alava R (1972). Tordylium maximum L., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinurgh, 4: 506.

Public Description:

Tordylium maximum, known as “hartwort”, is native to Europe, Türkiye, Crimea, South Russia, the Caucasus and North Iran. It is an annual or biennial herb with white flowers and a hollow ridged stem, and grows up to 120 cm in length. It blooms between May and June and is found in fields, waste ground and roadsides.

 

References:

Anonymous (2015). http://wiki.medicinalplants-uses.com/index.php?title=Tordylium_maximum/, Accessed date: 21.12.2015.

Menemen Y (2012). Tordylium L., In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 80.