Flora-Fauna

Cynanchica glareosa (Ehrend.) P.Caputo & Del Guacchio

(First published in Pl. Biosystems 154: 771 (2020); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3; 1983, as Asperula glareosa Ehrend.)

• Life-form & habit : Perennial subshrub to suffrutescent hemicryptophyte; stems numerous, ascending to erect, slender, branched from a woody base, forming loose grey-green tufts.

• Leaves : Leaves in whorls, narrowly linear to linear-lanceolate, small, entire, acute, often somewhat revolute at the margins; surfaces glabrous to scabrid, greyish-green.

• Inflorescence & flowers : Flowers small, arranged in terminal and upper axillary cymes; corolla yellowish to pale cream, narrowly funnel-shaped, with 4 lobes; calyx very reduced as typical in the group.

• Fruit : Schizocarp splitting into two small mericarps; mericarps dry, rounded to ovoid, glabrous or minutely roughened.

• Phenology : Flowers from late spring to summer.

• Habitat & elevation : High-mountain rocky slopes, screes and open limestone habitats; mainly in montane to alpine zones.

• Lebanese distribution : High mountains of Lebanon, especially exposed rocky and scree habitats.

• Native range : S. Türkiye, Lebanon.

• Diagnostic remarks : Formerly treated under Asperula; distinguished by its subshrubby habit, narrow whorled leaves and small yellowish flowers in open high-mountain habitats.