Scientific classification
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Division: | Angiosperms |
| Class: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Brassicales |
| Family: | Brassicaceae |
| Genus: | Matthiola |
| Species: | M. sinuata |
Binomial name
Matthiola sinuata
(L.) R.Br.
Matthiola sinuata, commonly known as sea stock, is a coastal plant in the family Brassicaceae.
A short-lived (biennial) herbaceous plant, growing to 60 cm in height. It does not spread vegetatively.[1]
It grows on the shore, on new sand dunes.[2] In continental Europe it is not rare, but it is seldom seen in the British Isles, where it is extinct in Scotland and probably Ireland.[3][4][5] In 2001 its conservation status was assessed by the IUCN as ‘vulnerable’.[6]
The genus Matthiola takes its name from Italian physician and naturalist, Pierandrea Mattioli. The species epithet sinuata is Latin for ‘sinuous’ i.e. wavy.[7]
Descriptive note
Sinuata violaciocca is a rare herbaceous plant with characteristic pink-lavender fragrant flowers that can be admired along the Mediterranean coastal dunes in early summer. Its presence is recorded in the north of Spain, in north-western Africa, in Turkey. In Italy it is present along the western coasts of the peninsula, in some stations in Salento (Otranto and Gallipoli) and in the major and minor islands (Elba, Giglio, Ischia, Pantelleria).
Morphological description
Perennial or bienne plant, 20-60 cm high, with patent branches, very leafy at the base, covered with glans hair. Thick leaves, grayish in color, and wavy margin, the lower ones with toothed, wavy or deeply incised margins, the upper ones narrow, lanceolate and with full margins. Flowers collected in a pale lilac-pink raceme, pedunculated, of 2-2.5 cm. in diameter, fragrant, especially in the evening. The fruit is a 7-12 cm long siliqua, with protruding lobes, protruding, apically ending in a star, uniseriati, winged seeds.
Ecological note
Herbaceous plant of dune environments and rocky cliffs. Usually it forms colonies that grow on sandy soils with low water retention (psammophilic species) which, due to the washout of rainwater, have low salinity values. Species adapted to high temperatures (thermophilia). The seeds can travel great distances by floating on the surface of the sea water. Flowering period (antesi): March-July. The plant can come in two biological forms: bienne hemicryptophyte (biennial life cycle with buds placed at ground level); scaposa hemicryptophyte (perennial plant by means of buds placed at ground level and with an elongated floral axis, often without leaves).
Contextualization in the environmental problems of the countryside
Matthiola sinuata is a species with Mediterranean distribution, widespread in a point manner in the Iberian peninsula, in Italy, in Anatolia and in Algeria. The name of the genus is dedicated to the Sienese botanist and physician, Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1500-1577), famous translator and commentator of Dioscorides’ ‘Materia Medica’. The specific epithet from lat. ‘sinuosus, -a, -um’, sinuous, waved, in reference to the morphology of the leaves.
Distinctive features
Pink lillacine-colored flowers, white in the center. Shorter silos, 3-6 cm long with the stigma lobes prolonged in 3 acute croissants.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
