Nice blue-Indigo flowers in broad racemes

[MWP admin]

looks like a member of the pink family, though its multi flowering branches looks like something else. I think I did not spot it on Weber book.

[MWP admin]

Ok I got it!
Plumpago europaea, a quite rare species that I found at BirZebbugia. Should be flowering in early Summer, but another fooled specimen by the warm sunny Autumn of 2006.

[RB]

Yes, there are quite a number of country-roadside specimens around Santa Lucia, Ghaxaq, Birzebbugia, etc, the general area. Weber says it's rare, but I guess that it's not really.

The dispersal method probably explains why it is predominantly a roadside species ("velcro" seeds) and thus dogs, previously sheep, etc would have spread this around.

In fact I am unsure that I have ever seen one that was NOT by a roadside, but then it is easy to overlook this plant.

Planted seeds quite some time ago but nothing yet.

RB

[MWP admin]

The only reference sources that I have to know if a plant is frequent vs rare is Haslam (outdated, 1977), Red data book (does not lis all plants, 1985) and Weber 2006.

[Sdravko]

would say its quite rare but i have only a few months experience in Malta trying to avoid roads. it might look more frequent to a biker than to a hiker .