Family |
Amaryllidaceae
Allium affine
Ledeb.
Allium affine Ledeb.
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, Pl. LXXXIV nº 1; 1966)
Life‑form & habit : Slender, graceful mountain onion forming one or several bulbs and a single flexible flowering stem up to ≈ 50 cm tall.
Bulb : Ovoid, enclosed in thin, white, membranous tunics that extend a short way up the stem base.
Stem : Delicate and slightly flexuous, leafless in its upper third, faintly striate when dry.
Leaves : Linear, soon withering at anthesis, reaching roughly two‑thirds of the stem length; blades flat to half‑cylindrical, pale green.
Spathe : Splits very early into numerous irregular, fibrous, translucent strips, leaving the umbel fully exposed.
Inflorescence & pedicels : Loosely spherical umbel 2 – 3 cm across, many‑flowered, a few outer flowers often exceeding the rest; pedicels thread‑like, unequal, from the length of the perianth to several times longer.
Perianth & tepals : Perianth conspicuously umbilicate at the base, 4 – 5 mm long; tepals oblong‑lanceolate, snow‑white with faint pale mid‑veins, obtuse.
Stamens & style : Inner filaments basally ciliate, ending in a short anther‑bearing median tooth that projects beyond the tepals; lateral teeth longer and flexuous. Anthers ovate‑elliptic, yellow; style yellowish and markedly exserted.
Capsule : Slightly longer than the persistent perianth, trigonal, apex blunt.
Flowering period : July – August. Mouterde CompleteMouterde Complete
Habitat & elevation : Sunny calcareous mountain slopes and ridges.
Native range : Recorded in Lebanon on Jabal Barouk, Dahr el‑Baïdar, the lower and upper slopes of Jabal Kneissé, Jabal Sannine, above the Ehden Forest and at Qalaʿat ʿArrouba; also on the summit east of Slenfé in Syria. Its wider range includes the Caucasus, Turkey and Iran.