Seasonal Wild Flowers

Lesser Periwinkle

Latin name

Vinca minor

Family

Apocynaceae

Flowering season

The main flowering period is from February to May with a

small burst in September. However, it flowers sporadically

throughout the year, including January.

English distribution

It is found throughout England, but is more common in the

South and Midlands.

See the BSBI distribution map for Lesser Periwinkle

Habitat

It is an archaeophyte that has been planted as ground

cover in gardens for over a 1000 years.

It is a widespread escape in woods, hedges, beside

roads, banks and wasteland generally.

Description

Lesser Periwinkle is a prostrate, evergreen, perennial

herb that can scramble up through other plants for

support.

Vegetative stems can grow to a metre or so and

flowering stems

up to 20cm.

The 5-petalled flowers at up to-30mm are smaller

than in both Intermediate and Greater Periwinkle.

They are normally blue

to mauve but white forms are not uncommon.

The calyx is a diagnostic feature. In Lesser Periwinkle

the calyx lobes are glabrous (hairless) and short at

up to 5mm.

The sexual parts are within the corolla tube.

At the base of the tube there are green, swollen

nectaries alternating with smaller carpels.

Above the nectaries there is a stylar column made

up of united styles which expand at the top to form a

disc-shaped stylar head.

The stigmatic surface is a band round the stylar head.

There is a plume of white hairs on top of the head.

The 5 stamens have jointed filaments and the anthers

form triangular-shaped flaps over the plume. These

flaps can just about be seen by looking down into the

corolla tube.

The dark green, tough, opposite leaves are lanceolate

and narrower and small (up to 45mm) than in

Greater Periwinkle.

The stems are self-rooting and help to spread the

colony.

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Lesser Periwinkle on a bank, West Dorset

Individual flowers

Flower with wedge-shaped petals

Side view showing corolla tube and calyx

Close-up of hairless calyx lobes

Close-up of opened up corolla tube - Stylar column,

overlapping anthers, nectaries and carpels

Close-up of stamen - angled filament and the

anther overlapping the stylar head

Close-up from above of anthers, a filament, the

plume on the stylar disc and the stigmatic band

White form of Lesser Periwinkle, West Dorset

Close-up of flower

Side view of corolla tube and calyx

Close-up of hairless sepals

Dark green, leathery, opposite leaves

Spreading stem shoots

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