Flora-Fauna

Bufonia ephedrina Sam. ex Rech.f.

(Ark. Bot., a.s., 1: 304, 1950; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, p. 461; Pl. CLVIII nº 2; 1966)

• Life-form & habit: Suffruticose perennial, 10–20 cm or more, rigid, with glaucescent stems, simple or few-branched. Internodes about 2 cm, finely puberulent at the base, glabrous above.
• Leaves: Connate into short sheaths (3–4 mm), 3-nerved.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Racemiform, with branchlets closely appressed to the axis, occupying the upper half of the stems. Pedicels thick, rigid, puberulent. Sepals acute, rigid, 7-nerved, broadly scarious-margined; outer sepals c. 4 mm, margins densely fimbriate; inner sepals c. 5 mm, entire. Petals half as long as sepals, white. Styles longer than ovary.
• Fruit & seeds: Capsule with smooth or nearly smooth brown seeds, 3 × 2 mm .
• Phenology: Flowers June–September .
• Habitat & elevation: Dry habitats, including degraded pastures and steppe-like sites.
• Lebanese distribution: Qamou‘at Hermel (collected under B. kotschyana), Qa‘a, and sources of the Orontes .
• Syrian distribution: Sahl-es-Sahra (type locality), Raboué, Jabal Abou Qpsh, Forkhlos, Palmyra; also Jabal ‘Abd-el-‘Aziz east of Derbassié .
• Native range: Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Saudi Arabia (POWO).

⚠️ Taxonomic note: Distinguished from B. paniculata by its suffruticose habit, glaucescent rigid stems, and smooth or nearly smooth seeds (versus strongly tuberculate).