Family: rose family (Rosaceae)
Blooming time: May – July
Size: 20 – 50 cm
Habitat: dry meadows, rocky embankments and cultivated soils
Prickly-fruited burnet (Sanguisorba muricata) is a perennial herb with pinnate leaves and inconspicuous flowers arranged in head-like inflorescences at the tops of the shoots. Its basal leaves, which form a leaf rosette, usually consist of 4 to 12 pairs of oval, coarsely serrated, short-petioled leaflets and one terminal leaflet. The stem leaves are similar to the basal ones, but consist of a smaller number of leaflets and are therefore smaller. The stem and leaf stalks are hairless. The green to reddish flowers without petals are unisexual – in one the flower develops only pistils, in the other only stamens. The male flower is recognizable by 20 to 30 stamens, hanging on long staminal filaments; for the female flower there are characteristic scarlet cup-shaped ridges. The fruits have winged margins, and the surface between them is wrinkled, being covered with blunt teeth.
Prickly-fruited burnet grows on dry soils on sunny slopes scattered across the central part of Slovenia; toward the southwest of the country it is becoming more frequent, but is absent in the mountainous regions and in Pomurje.
