Vinca L.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1972, Flora Europaea. Volume 3. Diapensiacea to Myoporaceae, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press : 69

4. Vinca L. 1

Low, creeping dwarf shrubs or herbaceous perennials, usually with trailing vegetative shoots and ascending flowering stems. Leaves opposite. Flowers solitary in leaf-axils, long-pedicellate. Calyx-lobes more than J as long as corolla-tube. Corolla hypocrateriform, usually blue (rarely reddish-purple, pink or white), the tube gradually widened, without conspicuous appendages but with a zone of hairs above the insertion of the stamens and a low ridge connecting the lobes at the mouth; lobes oblique, as long as the tube, overlapping to the left in bud. Stamens inserted half-way up the corolla-tube; filaments bent abruptly at base; anthers with the connective expanded above into a flap-like appendage. Carpels with 4-8 ovules, alternating with 2 disc- scales. Follicles patent. Seeds glabrous.

All species grow in woods, scrub, hedges or other shady places. Literature: M. Pichon, Bull. Mus. Nat. Hist. Nat. (Paris) ser.

2, 23: 439-444 (1951). 1 Plant dying down completely in winter; veins of leaves diverging from midrib at 10°-30° or scarcely perceptible

2. herbacea 1 Plantevergreen, withprevious year’sleavespresentatflowering time; veins of leaves diverging from midrib at 3O°-5O°

2 Calyx-lobes3-4(-5)mm,narrowlyovatetonarrowlytri­ angular, glabrous 1. minor 2 Calyx-lobes (4-) 6-18 mm, very narrowly triangular or almost linear

3 Marginof leavesand calyx-lobesglabrous 3. diflormis 3 Marginof leavesand calyx-lobesciliate

4 Leaves not more than 3 - 5 x 2 cm; flowering stems 9-12 cm

4. balcanica 4 Leaves up to 9 x 6 cm; flowering stems up to 30 cm

5 Hairs of calyx 0-5-1 mm 5. major 5 Hairs of calyx 0-2 mm or less 3. difformis