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Species of flowering plant From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sibthorpia europaea is a species of flowering plant known by the common name Cornish moneywort.[1] It can be found as a disjunct distribution in Western Europe from the Azores, Portugal and Spain to south-western Ireland and south-western United Kingdom. It also occurs in Crete, Pelion, Greece and tropical Africa. It is a prostrate perennial plant that is found in moist habitats.
Sibthorpia europaea | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Lamiales |
Family: | Plantaginaceae |
Genus: | Sibthorpia |
Species: | S. europaea |
Binomial name | |
Sibthorpia europaea | |
The genus Sibthorpia is named after Dr Humphry Sibthorp who was the Sherardian Professor of Botany at the University of Oxford from 1747 to 1783.[2]
Sibthorpia europaea is a small prostrate plant forming mats of thread-like stems which root as they creep across the ground. The mid-green hairy leaves are kidney-shaped and deeply notched. The flowers are tiny and develop singly in the leaf axils. They have relatively long stalks and five pinkish corolla-lobes, and appear from June onwards.[3]
Sibthorpia europaea has a discontinuous distribution in Western Europe and tropical Africa. It is known from County Kerry in southwestern Ireland, South Wales, southwestern England,[4] and East Sussex,[3] Spain, Portugal, the Azores, Crete, Pelion (Greece) and tropical Africa. It may be that this unusual distribution represents remnants of a species that was more widespread in the Tertiary period.[4] It typically inhabits moist, shady locations such as stream-banks, the sides of ditches, woodland, wet heathland, shady path verges, lawns and old walls and banks with a thin covering of soil. In Ireland it grows at altitudes up to 515 m (1,690 ft) but populations seem to be dwindling as it faces competition from the more aggressive New Zealand willowherb.[5]
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