Skye Flora

Brookweed


Samolus valerandi

 

Samolus valerandi

Photo © Carl Farmer
11 Aug 2003 Torrin
Left-hand flower 6 mm across

Rare among wet rocks near where burns enter sea.

Flower diameter c 2-6 cm

Skye ID: Flowers white, 5-petalled, in spikes.  Each flower arises singly from the spike on an up-curved stalk with a small bract halfway along.

Other features: Leaves in a basal rosette looking rather like that of a Daisy, and also up the stem, shiny, slightly fleshy, with rounded tip and narrowing to a stalk-like base.  Small white staminodes between the petal-lobes at top of tube, visible in pic opposite.  True stamens with yellow anthers, further down the tube.  Automatically self-pollinated within the tube.  Fruits globular, enclosed by the calyx whose lobes give a crown-like effect (right-hand edge of bottom pic). 

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Samolus valerandi

Photo © Carl Farmer
11 Aug 2003 Torrin

  Samolus valerandi

Photo © Carl Farmer
11 Aug 2003 Torrin
Furthest right stem 27 cm tall

Above: small squat plants in sunny area.
Right: tall plants in same population, in shade
 under rock overhang
 
 

 

Samolus valerandi

Photo © Carl Farmer
11 Aug 2003 Torrin
Lower left-hand flower 6 mm across
 

The right-hand open flower shows the small bract halfway along the stalk


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