Seasonal Wild Flowers

Latin name

Vinca major var. oxyloba

Family

Apocynaceae

Flowering season

It mainly flowers in March and April but a few flowers

can be found all year round, including January.

English distribution

It is found mainly in the South and Southwest. It is

more thinly scattered elsewhere and is absent from

much of the North.

It is locally comman in some places, such as West Dorset.

See the BSBI distribution map for Least Periwinkle

Habitat

It is a well established escape, found in  banks,

hedgerows and beside roads. 

Description

Least Periwinkle is a perennial, evergreen 

clambering herb. Vegetative stems grow up to 2m or so 

and flowering stems up to 30cm.

Flowers are purple and up to 4cm across. 

The petals are wedge-shaped but narrower than in Greater

Periwinkle.

The calyx is a diagnostic feature and, as in Greater

Periwinkle, the calyx lobes are hairy and at up to 14mm,

longer than in Lesser Periwinkle.

The sexual parts are inside 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 flat

disc-shaped stylar head.

The stigmatic surface is a band round the stylar head

and 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.

Leaves are dark green, ovate-lanceolate and rather

tough.They are smaller than the leaves of Greater

Periwinkle.

The stems scramble through and over other plants.

The ends of shoots self root, helping to spread the

colony.