Jasione montana, L.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 100

1. J. montana L. , Sp. Pl. 928 (1753).

More or less villous biennial or annual. Stems 5-50 cm, erect or ascending, leafless in the upper half, simple or branched in the lower part. Leaves linear-oblong to -lanceolate, undulate, entire or remotely crenate; margin usually thin and not or weakly papillose, ciliate. Outer involucral bracts ovate to triangular, rarely lanceolate, entire, crenate or serrate, usually shorter than the flowers. Calyx-teeth subulate, green, glabrous or rarely ciliate. Corolla blue, rarely pink or white. 2л = 12. Most ofEurope, northwards to c. 62° N. in Finland. *Az Be Br Bu Co Cz Da Fe Ga Ge Hb He Ho Hs Hu It Ju Lu No Po Rm Rs (N, B, C, W, E) Sa Si Su.

Very variable, though apparently with little geographical or ecological differentiation. Subsp. echinata (Boiss. & Reuter) Rivas Martinez , Pubi. Inst. Biol. Api. (Barcelona) 42: 122 (1967) is a fairly well-marked variant occurring in S. E. Spain and perhaps S. Italy and Sicilia. It is a large, robust, white-hispid plant, with involucral bracts with thickened margins. In other parts of the range of the species the correlation between these characters breaks down, so it does not seem possible to maintain it at subspecific rank.

A small, annual variant from S. Spain, with thickened leaf-margins, long involucral bracts and ciliate calyx-teeth has been described as J. blepharodon Boiss. & Reuter , Pugillus 72 (1852). It is connected by numerous intermediates with typical J. montana , and also has 2л = 12.