CYPRIUM A. K. Jackson & Turrill, 1939

Distribution : Southern Cyprus; crevices of igneous (rarely limestone) rocks, 150 - 1600 m.

Description (according to IHSP, 2003) :

Monocarpic herbs, erect, 9 - 15 (-35) cm, with a flat basal rather lax rosette.

Leaves shrivelling at or soon after anthesis, flat, broadly spatulate, 3 - 6 x 1 - 2 cm, obtuse or rounded, green in the shade, reddish in the sun, glabrous, margins entire, narrowly scarious.

Inflorescences : Stem leaves numerous, flat, shorter than those of the rosette but proportionately wider, thinly glandular-pubescent, continuing as bracts into the lower part of the inflorescence ; inflorescences usually unbranched cylindrical to narrowly conical panicles, 6 - 16 (-20) cm, axis densely glandular.

FIowers very numerous but less densely crowded than in S. microstachyum, 5-merous, 3 - 4 mm pedicellate, sepals free almost to the base, ovate-acuminate, glandular, ± 1,5 x 0.8 mm, petals narrowly ovate-acuminate, keeled, ± 2,5 x 1 mm, reddish or greenish, filaments minutely papillose towards the base.

Related to S. cepaea and very close to S. lampusae with equally glabrous rosette leaves and S. microstachyum with glandular-pubescent rosette leaves.