Flora-Fauna

Anthemis pauciloba Boiss.

≡ Anthemis blancheana Boiss. var. coronifera Eig
(Diagn. Pl. Orient. 6: 83, 1846; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 408; Pl. CCXXII nº 3; 1983)

• Life-form & habit: Small, white, silky, apprimée perennial with a shortly branched rhizome; sterile shoots and flowering stems 20–30 cm tall, almost leafless except at the base.
• Leaves: Radical leaves narrowly oblong, cuneate at base, either truncated and shortly trilobed or divided into 2–5 short, oblong-linear segments, obtuse, entire or shortly bi- or tridentate, decurrent along the rachis.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula medium-sized, 8–12 mm, discoid, long-pedunculate. Involucre pale, appressed-hirsute; bracts oblong to ovate, slightly acute. Ligules absent; florets of the disc yellow, drying pale yellow.
• Fruit: Achenes angular, white, surmounted by a short, sublaciniate crown; outer ones somewhat incurved.
• Phenology: Flowers March–July.
• Habitat & elevation: Rocky slopes, usually montane to subalpine.
• Lebanese distribution: Mount Sannine, Cedars of Hadeth, Cedars of Ma‘aser ech-Chouf, Cedars of Ain Zehalta, Barouk, Laqlouq, Falougha, Ehmej, Dhour Choueir, Bikfaya, Bhannès, Zahlé, Qornet es-Saouda, Bcharré, Ehden, Qamoua.
• Syrian distribution: Cha‘ara of Baalbeck, Anti-Lebanon (Ouadi el-Harir, Ouadi el-Qarn, Talaat Moussa, Bloudane, Mnine–Saïdnaya, Rachaya, Jabal Halimé, Anti-Lebanon high plateaus), Hermon ridge, Damascus (Bessima), northern Massiaf, Jabal Ansariyé.
• Native range: Iraq, Lebanon–Syria, Turkey (POWO).