Family |
Fabaceae
Bituminaria bituminosa
(L.) C.H.Stirt.
Bituminaria bituminosa (L.) C.H. Stirt.
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. CXIX nº 1; 1983, as Psoralea bituminosa)
Life-form & habit: Variable perennial, either spreading and low (30–60 cm) or erect and exceeding 1 m.
Leaves: Long-petiolate with short, bristle-like stipules. Basal leaflets nearly orbicular and obtuse; cauline leaflets oblong-lanceolate to linear-lanceolate or triangular, acute at apex, up to 5 cm long. Median leaflet strongly petiolulate.
Inflorescence & flowers: Axillary peduncles surpassing the leaves; flowers densely packed into capitula subtended by several trifid bracts. Flowers 15–25 mm long.
Calyx: Often densely hirsute, shorter than the bluish-violet corolla; teeth longer than the tube, subulate-setiform, the lower tooth longer than the others.
Fruit: Oval, compressed, hispid pod topped by a beak longer than the pod itself; exposed and glabrous.
Phenology: Flowers from April to July.
Habitat & elevation: Fields, vineyards, and waste ground.
Lebanese distribution: Ct. Nahr Qazmiyé, Beirut–Hazmiyé, Antélias, Tripoli.
Syrian distribution: Tartous, Lattaquié, Bhamra, Kessab.
Regional range: Mediterranean basin and western Asia