''Minuartia recurva'', the recurved sandwort or sickle-leaved sandwort, is a rare tufted, calcifugous

chamaephyte A subshrub (Latin ''suffrutex'') or dwarf shrub is a short shrub, and is a woody plant. Prostrate shrub is a related term. "Subshrub" is often used interchangeably with "bush".Jackson, Benjamin, Daydon; A Glossary of Botanic Terms with their De ...

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

flowering plant in the family

Caryophyllaceae Caryophyllaceae, commonly called the pink family or carnation family, is a family of flowering plants. It is included in the dicotyledon order Caryophyllales in the APG III system, alongside 33 other families, including Amaranthaceae, Cactacea ...

. It blooms from late spring to the end of summer.

Description

This perennial, densely tufted, hairy plant has a woody base and flowering stems up to in length. The stems are wiry and lignified, with acicular leaves with three veins, curving to the side to a greater of lesser extent. The flowers are grouped in glandular flower-heads, the individual flowers being white and five-petaled. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is a 1–8-flowered cyme. Sepals are long with 5–7 veins and are ovate-lanceolate; petals are long and ovate. The fruit is an ovoid capsule up to in length.

Distribution

''Minuartia recurva'' is found in mountainous regions of

southern Europe Southern Europe is the southern regions of Europe, region of Europe. It is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is essentially marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of Southern Europe include some or all of these countrie ...

and

southwest Asia Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Anat ...

. It is also found in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Caha Mountains The Caha Mountains (''An Cheacha'' in Irish) are a range of low sandstone mountains situated on the Beara peninsula in south-west County Cork, in Ireland. The highest peak is Hungry Hill, tall. Other notable peaks include Knocknagree, Sugarloaf ...

, first noted there in 1964.

Gallery

File:Minuartia recurva Krummb. Miere.JPG, In the

Canton of Valais Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languages outside Valais: it, (Canton) Vallese ; rm, (Chantun) Vallais. is one of the 26 cantons forming the Sw ...

File:Minuartia recurva Canigou 09.JPG, In the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...

File:Minuartia recurva kz01.jpg, In

Berlin-Dahlem Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum The Berlin Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum (german: Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin) is a botanical garden in the locality of the borough of , Berlin, Germany. Constructed between 1897 and 1910 under the guidance of archi ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3315635 Alpine flora

recurva ''Recurva'' is a genus of freshwater and free-living triclad platyhelminth that belongs to the Dugesiidae family. It contains two known species although, according to molecular evidences, there is probably a third one. Distribution Described spe ...

Flora of Europe Plants described in 1907