Strigosella africana

Strigosella africana (L.) Botsch. (syn.: Malcolmia africana (L.) R. Brown) (Medit.) – A rare and always ephemeral alien. Apparently recorded for the first time in a worked-up road verge near a paste mill in the port of Roeselare in 1994 (Verloove & Vandenberghe 1997). Soon afterwards (1997) also seen by a railway yard near a grain storage at the Amerikadok in the port of Antwerpen. Subsequently collected in relative abundance on a demolition site of a former grain mill at the Albertkanaal in Merksem in 2000 and 2001. Finally, recorded once again at the Soubry paste mill in the port of Roeselare in 2004 and 2011. All Belgian records of Strigosella africana are obviously associated with the importation of cereals. An old citation as a wool alien from river Vesdre (Visé 1942, 1958) was never confirmed by a voucher specimens.

In general appearance Strigosella africana is much reminiscent of Chorispora tenella and they might be intermixed. Both are weedy annuals with tiny pink flowers and long siliquae. However, the latter has siliquae with a much longer beak and most trichomes are simple and glandular. In Strigosella, by contrast, the beak is very short and all hairs are stellate or branched and eglandular.


Selected literature:

Marley G.A. & Wagner W.L. (1981) Malcolmia africana (L.) R. Br. (Brassicaceae). Madroño 28(1): 42.

Verloove F. & Vandenberghe C. (1997) Nieuwe en interessante voederadventieven in België en aangrenzend Nederland, hoofdzakelijk in 1996. Dumortiera 68: 13-26.

Visé A. (1942) La flore adventice de la région de Verviers. Lejeunia 6: 99-119.

Visé A. (1958) Florule adventice de la vallée de la Vesdre. Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belg. 90: 287-305.

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith