Helosciadium bermejoi (L.Llorens) Popper & M.F.Watson

Spice In the field 1 In the field 2

Family: UMBELLIFERAE (APIACEAE)

Genus: Helosciadium

Sinònims: Apium bermejoi L. Llorens

Catalan common name: Api d'en Bermejo.

Province distribution: Balearic Islands.

Distribution in the islands: Menorca.

General distribution (Phytogeography): West Mediterranean

Plants protected by law: Bern Convention. National Catalogue. Habitat Directive.

IUCN Category: ENEndangered

Flowering time: JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Life-forms: Hemicryptophyte. Terophyte.

Habitats: Rocky coastlines. Non-saline wetlands (intermittent watercourses, streams, artesian wells, ditches). Bed of a small torrent in the North of Menorca.

Characteristics: Surely this is the plant most threatened with extinction in the Balearic Islands. It has only been found in an area of the northeast coast in Menorca, which is divided into two small populations of less than fifty individuals. It is very small herbaceous plant, so small in fact, that the maximum surface area that would include all of these individuals wouldn't even reach a square metre. Grows prostrate, with stolons forming diminutive carpets of leaves for groundcover. Leaves are divided, have shiny folioles. Forms inflorescences: umbels, also very small, of more or less ten flowers, which are very hard to see. Flowers from May to July.