English: Large
Venus' looking-glass.
Synonyms: Legousia speculum veneris; Campanula speculum-veneris; Specularia speculum; Campanula pulchella; Campanula hirta; Prismatocarpus speculum-veneris.
Region: Europe and N Africa.
Habitat: cultivated, fallow and waste land; roadsides; occasionally on open stony hillsides or in open shrubby vegetation; altitude 0 to 1200 m.
BotanyHerb; ± pubescent; annual; 10 to 40 cm.
Stem: usually much-branched; 10 to 30 cm tall; simple or branched from base, suberect.
Leaves: obovate or oblong; margin, scarcely undulate; lower, sometimes stalked, petiolate; upper stalkless, sessile.
Inflorescence: ± paniculate.
Flower: numerous; short-stalked, subsessile.
Calyx: somewhat shorter than to about as long as the ovary when in full flower!!; linear, narrowing gradually to a point (acuminate), spreading.
Corolla: 1 cm; dark violet-purple, often with a paler centre; at least as long as the calyx-lobes!!
Fruit:- capsule; cylindrical, narrowed at the apex; 10 to 15 to 20 mm.
Seeds: broadly ellipsoid; ± 1 mm.
2) Calyx-lobes almost as long as the ovary at anthesis; patent or recurved in fruit.