Flora-Fauna

Acantholimon ulicinum (Schultes) Boiss.

(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, Pl. VI nº 4–5; 1973)

• Life‑form & habit : Dense hemispherical cushion‑shrub, up to c. 30 cm across; sparsely dotted with calcareous points, therefore greener than most Lebanese congeners.

• Leaves : Very crowded, short and rigid, green, usually up to (or a little over) 1 cm long in Lebanon; glabrescent or hispid‑pubescent with spreading hairs.

• Scape & inflorescence : Scape extremely short, hidden among the leaves; carries a compact spike of 2 – 5 (7) spikelets that arise almost from the same point. Rachis velvety‑pubescent.

• Bracts : Pubescent or nearly glabrous; the lowermost shorter and more herbaceous, the others broadly scarious and equalling or slightly exceeding the calyx tube.

• Calyx : Cylindrical tube, slightly hairy; hyaline white limb with five dark‑purple veins, usually projecting a little beyond the margin, glabrous or minutely hairy.

• Corolla : Purple, becoming slightly involute after flowering.

• Reproductive structures : Stamens a little shorter than the filiform styles; filament bases broadened and adnate to the short claws of the almost free petals. Stigmas small, with a glandular surface.

• Flowering period : Summer (high‑mountain season).

• Habitat & elevation : Rocky high‑mountain slopes and ridges.

• Native range : Lebanon (Jabal Barouk, Jabal Kneissé, Cedars region, Dimane–Yamouné, Jabal Sannine), Mount Hermon, Anti‑Lebanon (Bloudane, Signal de Zemrani); more broadly recorded from Greece, Crete, Cappadocia, Taurus, Beryt Dagh, Bithynia and the Tabriz region.