1. Nigella damascena L., Sp. Pl. 534. 1753. Boiss. Fl.Or. 1:68.1867, Stewart, Ann. Catalogue Vasc. Pl. W. Pak. & Kashm. 268.1972, Qureshi & Chaudhri in Pak. Syst. 4(1-2):33.1988.
English name: ‘Love in the mist’
HARALD RIEDL and YASIN J. NASIR
Naturhistorisches Museum, Botanische Abteilung, Wien, Austria.
and
National Herbarium, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, Islamabad, Pakistan.
Slender annual, 15-50 cm high, glabrous. Stem erect simple or with a few branches, striate. Leaf segments of lowermost leaves narrowly linear to filiform, sometimes slightly wider than the rest. Involucre dense. Sepals blue, broadly ovate, abruptly tapering into a distinct stipe. Petals with a distinct stipe, lobes of the outer (lower) lips obtuse. Follicles coherent for their full length, forming an inflated subglobose capsule. Seeds triquetrous, reticulate-rugose.
Fl. Per.: May-June.
Type: Described from Southern Europe (Lecto. LINN 700/1).
C-7 Rawalpindi, M.Z. Ahmad 13 (RAW).
Distribution: Southern Europe, Cyprus, S.W. Africa, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran.
According to Stewart, (l.c.) a common garden annual in Pakistan. Cultivated for ornamental purposes.
