Nomenclature

Species name:

Sideritis romana   L.

Author(s):

Carl von Linné
   Sweden, 1707-1778

General names:

Simplebeak Ironwort
Common Sideritis

Maltese name:

mmm__

Plant Family:

Lamiaceae / Labiatae   (Mint Family)

Name Derivation:

Sideritis = Sideros refers to iron and the name was used to the plant's supposed ability to heal wounds from swords or other iron weapons. (Greek);
romana = Related to the Roman empire or better to say, the Roman era (Latin).

Synonyms:

Sideritis spathulata, Sideritis approximata, Hesiodia romana

Plant Description

Life Cycle:

Annual

Habitat:

Garigue, valley sides, prefers arid waste/rocky ground.

Sources in Malta:

Uncommon, but can be frequent in certain sites. Examples include Dingli cliffs, Ghar il-Kbir, Girgenti, Wied Incita, Selmun, Ta' Cenc (Gozo), Wied Hanzira (Gozo).

Plant Height:

8-25cm

Flowering Time:

Apr-Jul

A small, low-growing herbaceous plant with an erect growth form, and ocassionally forms few basal branches. The plant is not woody and mostly covered with fairly long, shaggy hairs (villous hairs) especially at the upper part.

The leaves are also villous and arranged opposite and decussate (alternating perpendicularly) along stem. They are obovate to spathulate in shape, have pinnate venation, and slightly dentate to crenate outline; ocassionally entire. Leaves measure between 12-20mm long by 6-10mm wide at its broadest part and recurved downwards.

Flowers are arranged in equidistant whorls around the stem at the leaf nodes. Some authors describe the arrangement as a verticillaster of 3 flowers per side of stem, but since the flowers are equidistant from each other, they can be referred to as whorls. Normally there is a whorl of 6 sessile flowers, 2 of which arise from the leaf axils. The calyx is a tubular- to bell-shaped structure with 5 pointed teeth at the rim that are in a non-perfect actinomorphic arrangement since the upper teeth is broader from the rest. The calyx, averagely 7mm long, is highly villous and shows 10 longitudinal veins.

The corolla is a 2-lipped tube mostly inserted in the calyx, and slightly exceeding it. In other descriptions, Siderits romana is said to have white, cream, yellow or lilac flowers but in Malta, the white form predominates. The upper lip of the corolla is erect, uncurved, thinly oblong with a rounded tip and not bifid (undivided). The lower lip is much more broad, rounded, flattened and has 2 small lateral lobes pointing down.

The reproductive organs are inconspicuous since they are included in the corolla, or in other words, not protruding out from the throat of the corolla. There are 4 stamens arranged in 2 pairs, and a small pistil with a very short style at the base inside the calyx. The fruit consists of 4 nutlets with rounded apices. No mechanical seed dispersion is known; the small nutlets fall down from the calyx by wind swaying of the stems.

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