Family |
Brassicaceae
Anchonium billardieri
DC.
Leb. Syr.
Anchonium billardieri DC.
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, Pl. XLIV nº 1; 1966)
Life-form & habit : Low perennial chamaephyte forming lax cushions 10 – 25 cm tall; woody, many-branched caudex; stems erect-ascending, green-grey and almost completely glabrous, giving the plant its characteristic polished look .
Leaves : Alternate, sessile. Basal and lower cauline blades oblanceolate to narrowly spatulate (15 – 35 × 3 – 8 mm), entire or faintly denticulate, apex obtuse; upper leaves gradually smaller, linear-lanceolate. Both surfaces glabrous or with a few scattered simple hairs; dull bluish-glaucous.
Inflorescence & flowers : Terminal racemes dense at anthesis, soon elongating; pedicels 2 – 5 mm. Sepals oblong, greenish-purple; petals 4, bright yellow to pale cream, oblanceolate-clawed, ± 7 × 2 mm. Stamens 6, tetradynamous; filaments partly connate in their lower third, a feature noted by early floral anatomists
Fruit : Silicles oblong-elliptic, slightly torulose, 6 – 10 × 2 – 3 mm, glabrous with inconspicuous lateral veins; style short, persistent. Seeds oblong, c. 1 mm, reddish-brown, mucilaginous when wet.
Phenology : Flowers and fruits from April to June.
Habitat & elevation : Rocky limestone and dolomitic slopes, open cedar (Cedrus libani) woods and adjoining sub-alpine steppes; 1 600 – 2 100 m.
Lebanese distribution : Confirmed by Mouterde and later collectors in the cedar forest of Jabal Barouk (~ 1 800 m) and the celebrated cedar grove of Jabal Makmel above Bsharré (~ 1 950 m) .
Native range : A narrow Levantine endemic reaching the Anti-Lebanon and Mt Hermon; the Kew POWO record recognises Lebanon–Syria as the native area .
Conservation notes : Small, fragmented montane populations confined to cedar habitats; assessed as nationally Endangered because of grazing pressure and cedar-forest decline.
Diagnostic remarks : Readily separated from the sympatric A. elichrysifolium by its totally (or almost totally) glabrous foliage and narrower, scarcely torulose siliques.