Species Info

Species name:

Anthyllis hermanniae subsp. melitensis   Brullo & Giusso

Principal Synonym:

Aspalathus cretica

Plant Family:

Fabaceae   (Pea Family)

General names:

Maltese Yellow Kidney Vetch

Maltese name:

Ħatba s-sewda ta' Malta

Status:

Endemic. Found only on the Maltese islands

Frequency in the wild:

Very Common     Common     Frequent     Scarce     Rare     Very rare     Extinct

Growth form:

CHAMEOPHYTE (Subshrubs)

Legal Protection:

Protected by law (schedule III and VIII of legal notice LN311/2006) and cannot be picked or harmed

Red List 1989:

Not listed in the Flora section of the National Red Data Book (Lanfranco, 1989)

Flowering Time:

Apr-Jun

Remarks:

The scientists Salvatore Brullo and Gianpetro Giusso del Galdo have studied and compared many morphological features of several specimens of Anthyllis hermanniae s.l. in the Mediterranean region. Results showed that the Maltese population has significant different characters from the rest. As a result they concluded that the Maltese specimens corresponds to a new subspecies and consequently have described the taxon - Anthyllis hermanniae subsp. melitensis . This was published in 2006 and currently this species is considered as an endemic to the Maltese Islands. The study have actually split the taxon into 7 subspecies, most being strict endemics and reckognized the species Anthyllis hystrix from the Balaeric Islands.

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