Family |
Brassicaceae
Alyssum baumgartnerianum
Bornm. ex Baumg.
Alyssum baumgartnerianum Bornm.
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, p. 149, Pl. LVII nº 4; 1966)
Life-form & habit : Dwarf, silvery-grey perennial (5 – 10 cm) with a woody stock that sends up very short, densely leafy sterile shoots and several slender flowering stems.
Leaves : Silvery, oblong-obovate blades crowd the flowering stems all the way to the base of the solitary terminal corymb.
Inflorescence : Each stem ends in a single, compact corymb with 5 – 10 bright-yellow flowers.
Sepals & petals : Sepals broad, nearly contiguous, 4 – 5 mm; petals 7 – 8 mm, retuse and vivid yellow.
Reproductive organs : Longer filaments narrowly winged but not toothed; ovary hairy.
Fruit (silicule) : Densely scaly-pubescent, strongly swollen on one face, initially enclosed by the persistent sepals, finally exposed; 5 – 6 × ≈ 4 mm; style 1 – 2 mm.
Flowering period : May – July.
Habitat & elevation : Rocky mountain slopes.
Local distribution : Recorded by Mouterde on Jabal Barouk and Jabal Sannine in Mount Lebanon.
Native range : Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Türkey (KEW)
Taxonomic note.— Mouterde also listed the earlier combination A. tetrastemon var. latifolium Boiss. as a synonym of this species.