Herbs, annual, to 6 m. Stems erect, branched, not jointed, slender, glabrous or sparsely pilose. Leaves scattered along new growth, not clustered distally, often appressed to stem when young, sessile or subsessile; blade linear to linear-lanceolate, surfaces glabrous. Inflorescences axillary, solitary flowers or cymose clusters, sessile [shortly pedicellate]; bracts 2, [linear] lanceolate, often with tuft of white hairs. Flowers: hypanthium tubular or urceolate; calyx 4-lobed, lobes spreading; petals absent; disc minute or absent; stamens 8, included or distal whorl partially exserted, adnate to hypanthium; style slightly exserted; stigma capitate. Fruits capsular, green, becoming black, hard, enclosed by persistent hypanthium.

Distribution

Europe, w Asia, n Africa.

Discussion

Species 30 (1 in the flora).

Selected References

Pohl, R. W. 1955. Thymelaea passerina, new weed in the United States. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 62: 152–154.

Tan, K. 1980. Studies in the Thymelaeaceae: 2. A revision of the genus Thymelaea. Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 38: 189–246.

Lower Taxa

Thymelaea passerina