Flora-Fauna

Acer monspessulanum subsp. microphyllum (Boiss.) Bornm.
≡ Acer monspessulanum L. var. microphyllum Boiss.
= Acer hermoneum Bornm. & Schwer.
(Beih. Bot. Centralbl. 31(2): 198, 1914; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, p. 473; Pl. CC nº 2; 1969)

• Life-form & habit: Small tree or shrub, 2–5 m tall; young branches often reddish.
• Leaves: Long-petioled, generally not exceeding 3 cm in length and width; usually trilobed, occasionally with rudimentary traces of two additional lobes; underside paler but not glaucous, somewhat coriaceous at maturity. Lobes variable in depth and outline — entire and triangular, or broader and lobulate-crenate, sometimes resembling vine leaves.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Cymes relatively short, axillary.
• Fruit: Samaras with strongly prominent, subcarinate, shining nutlets, more or less covered with long flexuous whitish hairs; wings brownish to reddish-purple, connivent or slightly spreading.
• Phenology: Flowers in spring.
• Habitat & elevation: Wooded places, usually in montane zones.
• Lebanese distribution: Baskinta; Cedars of Tannourine; Berkacha; Yammouneh; Ouadi Fou’ara; Mchaitiyé; ‘Aïnata (North Lebanon); ‘Aïnata–Deir el-Ahmar; Litani Gorge near Yohmor; Orontes sources; Cheba‘a; Ouadi Cheba‘a; Rachaya to the base of Mt Hermon; western slopes of Mt Hermon.
• Native range: Lebanon–Syria, Turkey (POWO).