Flora-Fauna

Bolanthus filicaulis (Boiss.) Barkoudak

(Wentia 9: 167, 1962; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, p. 516; Pl. CLXXXI nº 5; 1966)

• Life-form & habit: Perennial cushion-forming plant, stems often elongated (20 cm or more), densely velvety, sometimes slightly flexuous.
• Leaves: Linear, opposite, covered with fine velvety hairs. Stipules minute.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Flowers usually fascicled in considerable numbers at the axils of the upper leaves and at the stem tips. Calyx narrowly tubular-campanulate, densely velvety-hairy. Corolla white.
• Phenology: Flowers April–September.
• Habitat & elevation: Dry, rocky regions, especially on mountains.
• Lebanese distribution: Kamed-el-Loz, Jabal Kneissé, Jabal Makmel, Col des Cèdres, Foum-el-Mizhab, Ouadi Ibrissa, Qala‘at ‘Arrouba, Rijal-el-‘Ashara, Qornet es-Saouda, Hermon.
• Syrian distribution: Sources of the Orontes, Damascus (Jabal Qasyoun, Doummar, Dimas), Ma‘loula, Palmyra and surrounding mountains, Ouadi Barada, Yabroud, Jabal Abou ‘Ata, Saïdnaya, Jabal Abou Qpsh, Jabal Abiad, west of Arak.
• Native range: Lebanon, Syria, Palestine (POWO).

⚠️ Taxonomic note: Mouterde treated this species under Gypsophila filicaulis (Boiss.) Bornm., later transferred to Bolanthus by Barkoudah. Several subspecies exist, some narrowly endemic (subsp. alpina in Sinai, Lebanon, Anti-Lebanon, Hermon; subsp. barradensis and subsp. ansariensis restricted to Syria)