Cruciata

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 : 36-37

7. Cruciata Miller1

Annual to perennial herbs, sometimes woody. Leaves in whorls of 4, 1 - to 3-veined. Inflorescence narrow, with whorls of short axillary cymes; central flowers hermaphrodite, the lateral male or absent; peduncles and pedicels partly deflexed under the leaves, not coalescing nor encircling fruit. Calyx absent. Corolla yellow, rotate, 4-lobed; stigmas capitate. Fruit dry; mericarps 1—2, glabrous or hairy.

C. articulata (L.) Ehrend. , Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinb. 22: 396 (1958), an annual species of the arid regions of S.W. Asia, with smooth stems and bracts and bracteoles greatly enlarged in fruit, has once been reported from Krym, but apparently only as a casual.

1 Peduncles with 2 bracts 2 Hairsof stem 1 -2mm; rootsmainlyadventitious 1. laevipes 2 Stems glabrous or with hairs less than 1 mm; adventitious roots absent or few 2. taurica 1 Peduncles without bracts 3 Annual 5. pedemontana 3 Perennial 4 Stems mostly unbranched, glabrous or with slender hairs 3. glabra 4 Stems branched, with coarse hairs 4. balcanica