Rolling Herb · Volvithamnus erraticus

An annual 8–15 cm tall. When moist it spreads slender silver-green leaves in a radial pattern and blooms small white flowers. When it dries, the whole plant curls inward into a dead ball that rolls in the wind to carry its seeds, opening again when rain comes.

Specimen Plates

8 plates · click to enlarge

PLATE I

PLATE II

PLATE III

PLATE IV

PLATE V

PLATE VI

PLATE VII

PLATE VIII

Field Note

Habitat

The bed of a dried-up lake in a Middle Eastern desert. Across the cracked dry mud it curls up when it dies and travels, rolling in the wind.

Local name

Traveller of the Wind

Folklore

Locally, years when many dried balls roll were taken as a sign of a long dry season to come.

Locator

Coordinates

33.3°N 44.4°E

The bed of a dried-up lake in a Middle Eastern desert

Record

When it dies, it rolls away as if alive.

For it sleeps on, year after year, until the rain comes.

A Middle Eastern desert, the bed of a dried-up lake.

On the cracked mud, the Rolling Herb appears.

When moist, it spreads slender silver-green leaves in a fan.

At its centre, a small white flower opens.

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Classification

Classification & specimen data

Scientific name

Volvithamnus erraticus C. Iwabuchi, 1996

Taxonomy

Plantae › Angiosperms › Dicotyledons › Volvithamnales › Volvithamnaceae › Volvithamnus › erraticus

Voucher

AVF-018 · Holotype
Archive of Vanished Flora (AVF)

Conservation

✝ EX — Extinct Last seen 1999

Collector

T. Okabe
1994-07-19

Synonym

Volvithamnopsis erraticus A. Reinholt, 1992

Protologue (Latin)

Suffrutex nanus, foliis imbricatis, floribus solitariis nocte apertis. Typus: The bed of a dried-up lake in a Middle Eastern desert. Species iam extincta.

Discovered / Described

1994 / 1996

Height

8〜15cm

Life form

Perennial herb

Phyllotaxy

Alternate

Chromosome

2n = 26

Flowering

A brief flowering (a few days)