Potentina astracanica, Jacq.

26. P. astracanica Jacq. , Mise. Austr. Bot. 2: 349 (1781)

(P. taurica sensu T. Wolf ).

Perennial. Flowering stems up to 30 cm, terminal, hirsute and often densely glandular. Leaves digitate; leaflets usually 5, 10-50 x 7-20 mm, oblong-oblanceolate to obovate, variously toothed. Flowers usually numerous, usually very crowded. Sepals triangular-ovate; epicalyx-segments triangular-lanceolate or -ovate, long-acuminate, usually l |- 2 times as long as sepals, always as wide as sepals at the base. Petals 12-15 mm, yellow, distinctly longer than calyx. Style conicalcylindrical. S.E. Europe. Bu G r Ju Rm Rs (W, K, E).

Variable in the density and type of indumentum and in the shape and length of the calyx and epicalyx-segments. The following are often recognized as separate species: P. astracanica sensu stricto ( P. taurica var. genuina T. Wolf ), from S.E. Europe, with densely glandular stems, leaflets green or grey-green beneath and sepals and epicalyx-segments broadly triangular-ovate, subobtuse; P. callieri (T. Wolf) Juz. in Komarov, Fl. URSS 10: 164 (1941), from Krym, like P. astracanica but with triangular-lanceolate, acute sepals and epicalyx-segments; P. emilii-popii E. I. Nyârâdy , Bui. Gräd. Bot. Cluj 8: 87 (1928), from coasts of Romania and Bulgaria, with the stems eglandular, leaflets densely white sericeous-villous beneath and sepals and epicalyx-segments triangularlanceolate, acute; P. taurica Willd. , Ges. Naturf. Freunde Berlin Mag. 7: 291 (1816), from Krym, with the stems eglandular or sparsely glandular, leaflets green or grey-green beneath and sepals and epicalyx-segments acute.