Flora-Fauna

Allium daninianum Brullo, Pavone & Salmeri

(Willdenowia 26: 237 – 244; 1996) bioone.org

• Life‑form & habit : Bulbous perennial geophyte; solitary, stout scape arises from the ground; overall stature 5 – 25 cm.

• Bulb : Ovoid, 7 – 12 × 6 – 10 mm; inner tunics membranous, hyaline; outer tunics blackish to dark violet‑brown, leathery and persistent.

• Stem (scape) : Solitary, erect, terete, glabrous; 2 – 3.5 mm in diameter; cloaked for ½ – ⅔ of its length by violet‑tinged leaf sheaths.

• Leaves : 4 – 5, filiform and flat, often exceeding the scape; up to 25 cm long, 1 – 1.5 mm wide; ribbed, hollow (fistulose); sheaths frequently suffused purple.

• Spathe : Two persistent valves, unequal; larger valve 8 – 20 cm (sic), smaller 3.5 – 10 cm; each 5 – 7‑nerved with a long acuminate tip.

• Inflorescence : Lax, many‑flowered umbel with c. 10 bostryces; up to ~80 pendent flowers on flexuous, unequal pedicels 1.5 – 4 cm long.

• Flowers (perianth) : Perigon conical‑campanulate, pink‑purplish to deep purple; tepals oblong‑elliptic, rounded at the apex, 4 – 5 mm × 2 – 2.3 mm, with a darker mid‑vein.

• Stamens : Longer than tepals; filaments simple, purple‑tinged distally, outer 2 – 4 mm, inner 4 – 5 mm; adnate to tepals for c. 1 mm; anthers yellow, elliptic, c. 1.2 mm.

• Ovary, fruit & seed : Ovary subglobose, slightly constricted apically, green, densely papillose, about 2 × 2.2 mm; style 1.5 mm, purplish at base; capsule 3‑valved, 3 – 3.5 × 3.2 – 3.5 mm; seeds black.

• Phenology : Flowers from late March to mid‑May; fruits soon after.

• Habitat & distribution : Shrub communities, batha and rocky places from the coastal belt up to c. 800 – 900 m. 

Native range: Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Transjordan. 

Remark : My recent field observations in Lebanon have documented populations at elevations up to 1 400 m, extending the known upper limit for the species.