5. Arenaria griffithii Boiss., Diagn. Ser. 2(1): 89. 1849. Fl. Or. 1: 697. 1867; Edgew. & Hook. f. in Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 1: 237. 1874, p.p.; Schischk. in Kom., Fl. URSS. 6:536. 1936; Mizushima in Kitam., Fl. Afghan. 109. 1960; Stewart, Ann. Cat. Vasc. Pl. W. Pak. & Kashm. 239. 1972.
SHAHINA A. GHAZANFAR & YASIN J. NASIR
Laxly caespitose perennial, 10-15 cm, with many branched woody stems, covered with leaf bases or withered leaves, sterile shoots densely leafy; flowering stems erect, glandular or glabrous, few-leaved. Leaves fasciculate, brownish or green, 10-15 mm, setaceous or subulate, keeled below, apex spiny, ± ciliate a base. Pedical longer than the calyx, glandular or glabrous. Bracts lanceolate, white scarious margins. Sepals 3-5 mm, ovate, acuminate, slightly convex, with a minutely ciliate, scarious margin, glandular-pubescent or glabrous. Petals white, obovate, ½ to 2 times the length of the sepals, with undulate margins. Capsule longer than the calyx, dehiscing by 6 teeth. Seeds winged at the back.
Fl. Per.: July.
Type: Hab. in monte Koh-baba Affghaniae, alt. 13000', Griffith.
Distribution: Afghanistan, Pamir Alai, Chitral (Pakistan).
More robust than its ally Arenaria festucoides; also differing in its cymose-corymbose inflorescence, smaller calyx more rounded and thickened at the base and winged seed. Glabrous and glandular plants are met with in our capsule is larger and exserted from the calyx in our plants. It is not shorter sepals as described by Edgeworth and Hooker. f. (l.c.).
Quite common in Chitral, also found in Kurram and Baltistan areas. Grows amongst rocks from 2450-4000m.
