SHAHINA GHAZANFAR

Convolvulus erinaceus Illustration Credit: S. Hameed

Shrub or undershrub, 20-50 cm tall, with divaricate branching, branches sericeous appressed-pubescent. Leaves mostly in the lower portion of the plant, appressed pubescent, sessile, 15-45 x 1-2 mm, linear, base gradually attenuate, subacute. Lowermost leaves longer. Flowers axillary, 1(-2), white. Bracts 4-5 mm long, linear. Peduncle stout, c. 10 mm long, divaricate. Pedicel short, bracteoles minute, sericeous-pubescent. Sepals 3-4 mm long, obovate or oblong-obovate, acute to subacute, appressed sericeous. Corolla 7-8 mm long, with densely hairy bands outside, tube glabrous. Stamens unequal. Ovary hairy, ovoid on a disc, style glabrous or with a few hairs, filiform, stigma filiform. Capsule ovoid, hairy 4 x 2 mm. Seed pubescent, 1, 2.5 mm long, blackish.

Fl. Per. : May-Sept.

Type : Iran, Tjuk-Karagan, E. Caspian Sea, Eichwald 474 (holo. : LE).

C-5 Waziristan : Kutina, 3500 ft., Duthie 15740 (K), Northern Baluchistan, Hari-rud Valley, Aitchison 606 (E).

Distribution : Pakistan (Waziristan), Iran, Afghanistan, Kazakhistan (USSR), Turkmenistan.

Not a common species here, it grows in sandy and stony soils to form a large ball, resembling Lactuca orientalis (Compositae) also from similar locations. The flowers open at sunrise, but close under the direct rays of the sun.