Sanguisorba minor, Scop.

6. S. minor Scop. View in CoL , FI. Cam. ed. 2, 1: 110 (1772)

( S. gaillardotii (Boiss.) Hayek , S. garganica (Ten.) Bertol.).

10-90 cm, glabrous or hairy, with well-developed basal leaf-rosette; rhizome not clothed with the sheaths of old leaves. Flowering stems erect, leafy, rarely leafless. Leaves with 3-12 pairs of orbicular to elliptical leaflets; leaflets 0-5-2 cm, more or less stalked, crenate to incise-serrate, mostly of equal size. Capitula 1-3 cm, globose to ovoid. Hypanthium 3-8 mm, usually angled, ridged or winged and with faces reticulate or sculptured in various ways. Dry grassland and rocky ground. S., PK & C. Europe, extending to S. Sweden and C. Russia; an occasional casual in the north-east. All except Az F a Is Rs (N, E) Sb, but only as a casual alien in Fe N o Rs (B).

Extremely variable in size, habit and ornamentation of the hypanthium. Differences in the hypanthium are often clearly marked, but they are not always satisfactorily correlated with other characters. So far as is known, there are no sterility barriers between the subspecies which are here described.

1 Hypanthium not or scarcely angled, strongly verrucose (d) subsp. magnolii 1 Hypanthium ± 4-angled, not verrucose 2 Hypanthium distinctly hairy (b) subsp. lasiocarpa 2 Hypanthium glabrous or with very short hairs 3 Hypanthium subglobose, the faces pitted and faintly reticulate (c) subsp. lateriflora 3 Hypanthium ± elongated, the faces reticulate or ridged 4 Angles of hypanthium ridged, the faces reticulate (a) subsp. minor 4 Angles of hypanthium winged, the faces covered with irregular ridges 5 Hypanthium up to 1-5 times as long as wide (e) subsp. muricata 5 Hypanthium at least twice as long as wide (f) subsp. rupicola