Flora-Fauna

Campanula phrygia Jaub. & Spach

(First published in Ill. Pl. Orient. 3: 42; 1848. Treated in Nouv. Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 359, Pl. CXCII nº 3; 1984)

• Life-form & habit: Slender annual to short-lived perennial 10 – 30 cm tall, slightly papillosely pubescent near the base; stems erect, branched from the lower third or half, often flexible and filiform.

• Leaves: Lower cauline leaves elliptic, obtuse, slightly crenulate, sessile or subsessile (5 – 10 mm); upper and floral leaves linear, acute, and shorter.

• Inflorescence & flowers: Paniculate, with filiform branches bearing terminal, long-pedunculate flowers. Calyx glabrous, its short obconic tube topped by linear-subulate lobes 3 – 4 times as long, equalling or exceeding the corolla. Corolla blue-violet, funnel-shaped, 8 – 12 (15) mm long, divided into lobes half as long as the tube.

• Fruit: Capsule distinctly striate, ovoid, dehiscing by lateral pores near the apex.

• Phenology: Flowers April – June.

• Habitat & elevation: Wooded or shrubby slopes and rocky places, occasionally on non-calcareous soils, from mid-mountain to sub-alpine belts.

• Lebanese distribution: Aïn Cheik (below Beit Méri); Tell Qpuleib (near Hermon); also reported from Qalamoun and Anti-Lebanon slopes.

• Native range: Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Lebanon-Syria, NW. Balkan Peninsula, Palestine, Turkey, Turkey-in-Europe (POWO).

• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: A delicate species distinct from C. kotschyana by its narrow, elongated calyx lobes 3–4 times longer than the tube and its distinctly striate capsule.