Weeds
Sideritis montana L. - Mountain Ironwoundwort
Systematic position.
Family Lamiaceae, genus Sideritis L.Synonyms.
Hesiodia montana (L.) Dumort.Biological group.
Annual germiniparous weed.Morphology and biology.
Plant is 15-35 cm tall, wooly-hairy. Stem is erect or ascending at base, somewhat ramified in middle part, covered with bristly hairs. Cotyledons are elliptical, rounded at top, wedge-shaped at base, sparsely-hairy; petioles 3-4 cm long. Leaves are opposite, oblong-lanceolate, short-petiolate; upper leaves are almost sessile; both sides are dull-green, covered with long, mainly non-dense bristly hairs. Flowers are located in numerous, mostly 6-flower whorls, on short peduncles; bract leaves do not differ or do not much differ from stem leaves, being mainly longer than flowers. Calyx is hard, with remarkable nerves, 8-11 mm long, tubular bell-shaped, with 10 nerves and 5 almost equal teeth terminated with a thorn. Corolla is shorter than the calyx, light-yellow, later becoming brown. Upper labium of corolla is entire, straight, nearly flat; lower labium is three-lobed, with wider sinuate middle lobe and small lateral lobes. Seeds are 1.5 mm long, obovate, triquetrous, gray-brown, rounded at top, fine-tuberous. Mass of 1000 seeds is 0.75-1 g. Maximal fruitfulness of one plant is 17300 seeds. Seeds emerge from a depth of not more than 6-8 cm. Flowering occurs in June-September.Distribution.
Weed is distributed throughout the Mediterranean, the Balkans, Asia Minor, Iran and Afghanistan. It also grows in the South of the European part of the former USSR, Crimea, the Caucasus and Central Asia.Ecology.
This is a heat-resistant and drought-resistant plant. It prefers carbonate and sandy soils.Economic significance.
Weed of grain crops, Lucerne and cotton; occurs in fallow lands, orchards, vine-yards, waste lands, along roads. Control measures include stubbling, early under-winter plowing, harrowing of winter crops, chemical weeding.Reference citations:
Grin'ko N.I., Titov A.Kh., Kvartin V.N., Semernikova A.I., Lapchenkov G.Ya., Dyatlenko V.A. 1987. Weed plants and their control in the Rostov Region. Persianovka: Donskoi agr. Institute. 104 p. (In Russian)Keller B.A., Lyubimenko V.N., Mal'tsev A.I., Fedchenko B.A., Shishkin B.K., Rozhevits R.Yu., Kamenskii K.V., eds. 1934. Weed plants of the USSR. V. 4. Leningrad: AN SSSR. 414 p. (In Russian)
Shishkin, B.K. & S.V. Yusepchuk, eds. 1954. Flora of the USSR. V. 20. Moscow-Leningrad: AN SSSR. 556 p. (In Russian)
Veselovs.kii I.V., Lisenko A.K., Man.ko Yu.P. 1988. Atlas-synopsis of weeds. Kyiv: Urozhai. 72 p. (In Ukrainian)