Valerianella echinata, (L.) DC.

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 : 51

15. V. echinata (L.) DC. in Lam. & DC., Fl. Fr. ed. 3, 4: 242 (1805).

Up to 30 cm. Lower cauline leaves spathulate, obtuse, entire to remotely sinuate-dentate; middle and upper spathulate- lanceolate, obtuse, distinctly sinuate-dentate, the uppermost often pinnatifid at the base. Bracts green, auriculate, with a distinctly scarious margin, the lower linear-spathulate, obtuse, the upper narrowly triangular, acute. Lower fruit-bearing internodes usually distinctly thickened. Fruits in capitate, terminal clusters and also solitary in several of the lower dichotomies, connate with the preceding thickened internodes, glabrous, often papil­ lose; solitary fruits 8-10 mm, falling attached to the thickened internodes, narrowly oblong, flattened, with 1 long horn at the apex, their sterile loculi reduced to slender ribs; clustered fruits 4-6 mm, falling in clusters with the thickened internodes, oblong-ovoid, 3- to 4-angled, with 3 unequal horns at the apex, their sterile loculi unequal, one larger and one smaller than the fertile loculus; pericarp with spongy thickening. Calyx reduced to an indistinct tooth at the apex of each horn. 2n = 16. S. Europe. Al BICoCrGaGrHsItJuLuRs (K) SiTu.

Variable in the degree of inflation of the internodes and in the development of spongy thickening of the pericarp, particularly in the S.E. part of the range of the species. Plants with relatively little thickening of the internodes, the fruits falling separately, and little spongy tissue, have been called V. soyeri Buchinger ex Boiss. , Diagn. Pl. Or. Nov. 2(10): 74 (1849). A detailed study of the pattern of variation is required before the taxonomy can be elucidated.