Flora-Fauna

Anarrhinum orientale Benth.

(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, Pl. CXX nº 1; 1973)

• Life-form & habit : Perennial (rhizome eventually woody), often multi-stemmed and entirely glabrous; stems erect, densely leafy, usually unbranched, 30 – 80 cm tall.

• Leaves :
  Basal — Petiolate, obovate-oblong, entire or shallowly dentate.
  Cauline — Sessile, undivided or 3-lobed, acute, 2 – 3 cm long.

• Bracts : Linear; the lower bracts equal the flowers.

• Calyx : Longer than the pedicel; five lanceolate, glabrous lobes.

• Corolla : Tubular, ≈ 5 mm long, white, lacking a spur; upper lip 3-fid and shorter than the lower lip. 

• Fruit : Capsule retuse, glabrous, ≈ 2 mm in diameter.

• Flowering period : May – July. 

• Habitat : Grassy places and rocky slopes on limestone. 

• Lebanese distribution : Widespread from the coast to the cedar zone:
  Coastal & foothills — Saïda, Saïda–Djoun, Beirut, Nahr el-Kelb.
  Mid-mountain — Bikfaya, Ghazir, Baabda, Maʿasser ech-Chouf, Faraya, Douma.
  Upper mountain / cedar belt — Ehden, Jabal Barouk, Tannourine, Jabal Kneissé, Bcharré-Cedars.
  Beqaa & Anti-Lebanon — Zahlé, Baalbeck plain, Rachaya, slopes of Jabal Hermon.

• Native range : Lebanon, Syria and Turkey