THE BULGARIAN FLORA ONLINE

Pedicularis oederi

Oeder's Lousewort

Pictures of Pedicularis oederi (Oeder's Lousewort)

(Click on the pictures to see them in larger size)

Common name

Oeder's Lousewort.

Scientific name

Pedicularis oederi Vahl

Conservation status and threats

The species is PROTECTED in Bulgaria by the Biodiversity Act - it is prohibited to "picking, collecting, cutting, uprooting or any other manner of destruction of specimens in their natural range in the wild", as well as "possession, keeping, movement, transport, export, trade and offering for sale or exchange of specimens taken in the wild". These bans apply to "all stages of life of the plants"¹.

Listed in the Red Data Book of Bulgaria to the category "Endangered"².

Threats

Global warming and aridisation of climate, destroying of individual plants and pollution due to the tourist flow, soil erosion, small and isolated sub populations³.

Description and identification

Pedicularis oederi is a perennial herbaceous plant.

Stem 3–17 cm high, erect, hollow, usually glabrous below, hairy above.

Leaves pinnate, in outline narrowly elliptical, sparsely pubescent or glabrous, lower petiolate, the cauline sessile, alternate.

Flowers 4–25, in a spike-like raceme dense at first, lax later. Lower bracts leaf-like, ovate to lanceolate above, sparsely pubescent.

Calyx campanulate.

Corolla yellow with purple apex of the upper lip or pale yellow with pale pink tube, glabrous.

Fruit narrowly ovate, acute, pubescent capsule.

Flowering June-July⁴.

Habitat

Humid grassy or stony places in the subalpine belt. Population is fragmented, consisting of single individuals or gathered in groups of 3–5. The localities are significantly isolated⁵.

Distribution in Bulgaria

Map of distribution in Bulgaria of Pedicularis oederi (the squares marked with red dots)⁶:

General distribution

Map of general distribution⁷:

References

1 Bulgarian Biodiversity Act in english.

2 Dimitar Peev, Sonya Tsoneva. 2015. In: Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 1 - Plants & Fungi.

3 Dimitar Peev, Sonya Tsoneva. 2015. In: Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 1 - Plants & Fungi.

4 Dimitar Peev, Sonya Tsoneva. 2015. In: Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 1 - Plants & Fungi.

5 Dimitar Peev, Sonya Tsoneva. 2015. In: Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 1 - Plants & Fungi.

6 Dimitar Peev, Sonya Tsoneva. 2015. In: Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Volume 1 - Plants & Fungi.

7 Pedicularis oederi Vahl | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science.