''Petromarula'' is a genus of plants in the family

Campanulaceae The family Campanulaceae (also bellflower family), of the order Asterales, contains nearly 2400 species in 84 genera of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and rarely small trees, often with milky sap. Among them are several familiar garden plants belon ...

. There is only one known species, ''Petromarula pinnata'',

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the island of

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> The name "Petromarula" means "rock lettuce" in Greek, a reference to the plant's traditional use in salads.

Description

Petromarula pinnata is a robust, medium to tall perennial, minutely hairy above. Leaves mostly in a large basal rosette, pinnate to pinnately-lobed, the lower long-stalked; leaflets oval to oblong, coarsely toothed. Flowers pale blue, 9–10 mm, borne in large rather narrow panicles; corolla with 5 spreading to recurved linear lobes. Capsule opening by 3 pores in the middle. Flowers April–May.Mediterranean Wild Flowers,

Marjorie Blamey Marjorie Netta Blamey MBE (13 March 1918 – 8 September 2019) was an English painter and illustrator, particularly noted for her botanical illustrations for which she was described as "the finest living botanical illustrator", "the best conte ...

& Christopher Grey-Wilson, ''

HarperCollinsPublishers HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

'', 1993,

Habitat

Rock crevices, cliffs and old walls.

Gallery

File:Katholikon - Klostergebäude - Pflanze 3.jpg File:Petromarula pinnata - Blüten.jpg File:Petromarula pinnata.jpg File:Petromarula pinnata pm.jpg

References

External links

Cretan Flora, ''Petromarula pinnata''Dave's Garden, PlantFiles: Cretan Wall-Lettuce ''Petromarula pinnata''
* ttp://www.first-nature.com/flowers/petromarula_pinnata.php First Nature, ''Petromarula pinnata'' - Rock Lettucebr>Biodiversity Sitia, Βιοποικιλότητα Δήμου Σητείας , ''Petromarula pinnata'' Πετρομάρουλο
Campanuloideae Flora of Crete Edible plants Monotypic Campanulaceae genera {{Campanulaceae-stub