categoryZClimbers Climbers List 

WHITE RAMPING-FUMITORY

Fumaria capreolata

Poppy Family [Papaveraceae]

month8apr month8april month8may month8jun month8june month8jul month8july month8aug month8sep month8sept month8oct month8nov

category
category8Climbers
status
statusZnative
flower
flower8white
inner
inner8beetroot

morph
morph8zygo
 
petals
petalsZ4
 
type
typeZspiked
 
type
typeZtubular
 
type
typeZspurred
v. short
stem
stem8round
 
stem
stem8milkysap stem8milkylatex
 
toxicity
toxicityZmedium
 

rarity
rarityZrare
(ssp. capreolata)

25th April 2013, Caramanico Terme, Italy Photo: © Angela McCardell
Also occurs in the UK. Grows about a metre high.


25th April 2013, Caramanico Terme, Italy Photo: © Angela McCardell
Flowers are creamy-white, often tinged pink.


25th April 2013, Caramanico Terme, Italy Photo: © Angela McCardell
Many of the flowers (apart from those at the summit) are reflexed pointing downwards along the stem. [If they are white with beetroot-red tips and point outwards then it most likely is not White Ramping-fumitory, but possibly Common Ramping-Fumitory (Fumaria muralis)].


25th April 2013, Caramanico Terme, Italy Photo: © Angela McCardell
Flowers have a beetroot-red nearly black tip and small greyish-light-green trefoil-trefoil leaflets with a near circular profile.


25th April 2013, Caramanico Terme, Italy Photo: © Angela McCardell
Flowers in a short upright spike.


25th April 2013, Caramanico Terme, Italy Photo: © Angela McCardell
The creamy white flowers are light green in places.


Western Ramping-fumitory (Left).

White Ramping-fumitory ssp. babingtonii (Right).

Photo: © Dawn Nelson
The babingtonii sub-species of White Ramping-fumitory can be confused with Western Ramping-Fumitory

Western Ramping-fumitory (Left).
White Ramping-fumitory ssp. babingtonii (Right).

Note the slight size differences too.



26th June 2019, back alleyway, Llandudno, North Wales. Photo: © RWD


26th June 2019, back alleyway, Llandudno, North Wales. Photo: © RWD


26th June 2019, back alleyway, Llandudno, North Wales. Photo: © RWD
The leaves have flat lobes which are either oblong or wedge-shaped.


26th June 2019, back alleyway, Llandudno, North Wales. Photo: © RWD
The flowers are 10 to 12mm long. The upper petal of which is laterally compressed. The stalks of the fruit are recurved (curve up before curving back down).


26th June 2019, back alleyway, Llandudno, North Wales. Photo: © RWD
The wings of the flower do not conceal the keel (which is in the middle). The inflorescence is shorter than the flower stalk.


26th June 2019, back alleyway, Llandudno, North Wales. Photo: © RWD
The bracts (to be seen just in the 'armpit' of the flower stalk (and hiding fairly well in these photos just beneath the flower stalk) as as long as or shorter than the flower stalk.


Not to be semantically confused with : Round-Headed Rampion (Phyteuma orbiculare) nor with Inchnadampf Rampion (Phyteuma scheuchzeri) nor the much rarer Spiked Rampion (Phyteuma spicatum) [plants with similar names belonging to the Bellflower Family (Campanulaceae)]

Easily mistaken for : other Fumitories if the flower colour is pinkish instead of creamy-white.

Found mainly near the coast and some inland areas. The spur at the rear of the flower is a very short 2mm long. White Ramping-fumitory occurs as two sub-species:

  • White Ramping-fumitory (Fumaria capreolata ssp. babingtonii) which is the more common, especially in Cornwall (Penzance).
  • White Ramping-fumitory (Fumaria capreolata ssp. capreolata) which is quite rare, being found in but one or four hectads but it is more common in the Scilly Islands. [RRR]
It is not known which of the two species the above photographs represent since the photos were taken in Italy where your Author has not found a distribution map.

If the stems are broken they seep a potentially poisonous white latex dangerous to get in the eye causing glaucoma, but no poisonings have been reported.


  Fumaria capreolata  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Papaveraceae  

Distribution
 family8Poppy family8Papaveraceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Fumaria
Fumaria
(Fumitories)

WHITE RAMPING-FUMITORY

Fumaria capreolata

Poppy Family [Papaveraceae]