The Little Cymbal of the Screes

Habit: A small perennial plant contracted into dense tufts. Stems: Short, 5-15 cm long, generally pubescent, more rarely glabrous. Leaves: Mostly opposite, with a rounded blade divided into 3-5 lobes, the apical lobe markedly larger than the others. Flowers: Corolla bluish-violet, with a conspicuous backward spur about 10 mm long. Calyx densely hairy, with blunt lobes. Fruits: A glabrous capsule containing black ovoid seeds with a wrinkled or alveolate-wrinkled surface. Flowering: June-August.

Chorological type: Italian endemic. Distribution: A rare endemic of the Central Apennines, with its distributional centre in the mountain massifs of Abruzzo. Habitat: It grows almost exclusively on mobile screes and high-altitude calcareous debris between 1500 and 2500 m above sea level.

Generic name (Cymbalaria): From the Latin cymbalum or the Greek kymbalon, meaning “cymbal”, an ancient hollow percussion instrument, referring to the concavity of the leaves in some species of the genus. Specific name (pallida): From the Latin pallidus, meaning “pale”, probably chosen to describe a more delicate floral colouring than that of the commoner Cymbalaria muralis.

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The Abruzzo cymbalaria is considered a species of high biogeographical value. Because of its extreme ecological specialization and restricted range, it is included in the Italian Red List of Flora as a protected species. Its populations are vulnerable to climate change, which may alter the stability of high-altitude screes, and to excessive trampling caused by off-trail hiking tourism in protected Apennine areas.