HONEWORT

Trinia glauca

Carrot Family [Apiaceae]

month8may month8jun month8june

status
statusZnative
flower
flower8white
inner
inner8pink
morph
morph8hemizygo
petals
petalsZ5
type
typeZclustered
stem
stem8round
stem
stem8ribbed
rarity
rarityZrare
sex
sexZdioecious

23rd May 2009, unknown place. Photo: © Phillip Bagshaw
 The stems grow erect up to 20cm high.


23rd May 2009, unknown place. Photo: © Phillip Bagshaw
 The stems at the base of the plant, unseen here, also have a dense sheath of fibre there with fine strands of hair sticking up. The stems are solid and are grooved/ribbed, whichever is your fancy, one mans groove is another mans rib when they go all the way around...

The stems are numerously branched at a splayed-out angle. The umbels are compound. The plant is dioecious with completely separate male and female plants. The male plants have umbels (those with anthers when in flower, as this specimen is) have short rays between 0.5 to 1cm long which are only approximately equal in length. [The female plants have very unequal rays up to 3cm long - sorry, possibly no photos unless those photos from Dawn Nelson are female plants]



23rd May 2009, unknown place. Photo: © Phillip Bagshaw
  With 5 anthers coming out of each flower this has to be the male plant.


23rd May 2009, unknown place. Photo: © Phillip Bagshaw
 The flowers are almost actinmorphic rather than zygomorphic as is usual for the larger umbellifers.


23rd May 2009, unknown place. Photo: © Phillip Bagshaw
 Being a male plant, the objects in the centre at the bottom of the flower cannot be the 2 styles, they must be sterile styles. The flowers (of either sex) lack sepals.


24th April 2010, Devon. Photo: © Dawn Nelson
 With a tiny white object visible in the very centre of these unopened flowers, this may(?) be a female plant.


24th April 2010, Devon. Photo: © Dawn Nelson
 This is a young specimen which may explain its apparent sprawling stance. Note that the leaf stalks are flat with a groove down the wide centre looking like electrical wire for headphones. At the tip of this stalk it branches into three, each one flattened and is 2-pinnate here. (Specimens can also have 3-pinnate leaves) [see top right leaf and stalk].


24th April 2010, Devon. Photo: © Dawn Nelson
 The lower leaves are between 2- to 3-pinnate with linear lobes 5 to 15mm long. The upper leaves are smaller and with fewer divisions. The leaflets here look quite fleshy, but that could just be because it is still an immature specimen.


24th April 2010, Devon. Photo: © Dawn Nelson
 Leaf stalks flatened - see centre going north-left.


24th April 2010, Devon. Photo: © Dawn Nelson
 A close-up of the flat leaf-stalk going north-left with its 2 to 3-pinnate leaflets branching off several times up the stem.


Easily confused with : Flower () [plants with similar names belonging to differing families]

Not to be semantically confused with : Rigid Honewort (Ceratophyllum demersum), Greater Honeywort (Cerinthe major), Honeybells (Nothoscordium borbonicum) nor to Honeycup (Zenobia pulverulenta), nor to any of the Honeysuckles such as Himalayan Honeysuckle (Leycesteria formosa) [plants with similar names]

Slight resemblance to : Moon Carrot (Seseli libanotis)

The styles are between 2 and 3 times as long as the stylopodium (none present in photos).

The fruits (none present in above photos) are less that 1.5 times as long as they are wide.

It has some resemblance to Moon Carrot (Seseli libanotis) and Clive Stace thinks that it should be transferred to the Seseli genus from the Trinia it at the present time occupies.


  Trinia glauca  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Apiaceae  

Distribution
 family8Carrot family8Apiaceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Trinia
Trinia
(Honewort)

HONEWORT

Trinia glauca

Carrot Family [Apiaceae]