Nigella arvensis
Nigella arvensis
Tarla çörekotu
Plant glaucous, 10-50 cm, usually branched. Cauline leaves pinnatisect, trisect or entire, the laciniae linear, or short and oblong. Sepals pale blue; greyish or dirty white, with broadly ovate, acuminate limb, truncate or subcordate at base and narrowed into a claw nearly as long as limb. Petals with lower lip bipartite, lobes attenuate into short laciniae with thickened apices, the upper lip linear and shorter. Anthers yellowish with short or long mucro. Follicles united to up to ½ of their length, each with 3 strong abaxial ribs, ± tuberculate but not or scarcely tranversely rugose; beak a little longer or shorter than the follicle. Seeds triquetrous. Fl. 6-8.
A widespread, very polymorphic species that has been divided into numerous taxa that are, in fact, mostly connected by intermediates. Most of the European material has smooth follicles, whereas most of that from SW Asia has tuberculate or even asperous follicles. The following infra-specific taxa may be recognised in Turkey and adjacent islands, but their status and nomenclature must be treated as provisional. Var. arvensis is European.
1. Median leaves with attenuate, ± linear or oblanceolate laciniae, glabrous or scabrid; follicles 12-17 mm
2. Flowers subtended by a distinct involucre of leaves var. involucrata
2. Flowers naked or scarcely involucrate
3. Follicles oblong, united from ½ to 2/3 of their length; beak erect or somewhat divergent; laciniae linear var. glauca
3. Follicles linear-oblong, united to nearly the middle; beak and free part of follicle widely divergent; laciniae oblanceolate var. caudata
1. Median leaves with abbreviated, oblong laciniae, often conferted, glabrous or asperous-pubescent; follicles 7-12 mm
4. Plant diffuse with widely divaricate, procumbent branches; leaves glaucous and glabrous; follicles transversely rugose .. var. microcarpa
4. Plant erect with branches coming off at an acute angle; leaves densely asperous-pubescent; follicles not transversely rugose var. tauricola
