Family |
Ranunculaceae
Delphinium peregrinum
L.
Delphinium peregrinum L.
(First published in Sp. Pl.: 531 (1753); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. IX nº 3; 1969)
• Life-form & habit : Annual therophyte; plant finely pubescent or glabrous, not glaucous, bright green in glabrous individuals; stem erect, more or less branched, 30–100 cm or taller.
• Leaves : Leaves very soon caducous, often absent on flowering plants; lower leaves petiolate, trifid, with segments dissected into acute linear lobes; upper leaves sessile, trifid or bifid; the last leaves below the flowers entire.
• Inflorescence & flowers : Flowers in long, dense racemes, 2–3 cm long including the spur; pedicel puberulent, later glabrescent, subtended by a filiform bract and two bracteoles; sepals violet-purple, more or less pubescent outside; posterior sepal prolonged into a straight ascending spur, about twice as long as the rest of the flower; petals concolorous, the lateral petals with a blade cuneate at base; stamens yellow.
• Fruit : Follicles 7–8 mm long, sometimes strongly pubescent, often with only scattered hairs or glabrous; carpels more or less pubescent.
• Phenology : Flowers in summer.
• Habitat & elevation : Rocky soils and rocky places.
• Lebanese distribution : Recorded from Beyrouth, Nahr-el-Kelb, Tripoli, ‘Abey, Kfar ‘Aqab, Sofar, Bazoun, ‘Aqoura, Harajel, Faraya, Hasroun, Ehden, ‘Aïn Dara, Zahlé and ‘Aïn ‘Ata.
• Native range : Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kriti, Lebanon-Syria, NW. Balkan Pen., Palestine, Sicilia, Sinai, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe.
• Diagnostic remarks : Distinguished from Delphinium virgatum by its non-glaucous green habit, rapidly caducous leaves dissected into narrow linear lobes, and violet-purple flowers with a long straight ascending spur; Mouterde also records var. eriocarpa Boiss., with leaves and especially follicles distinctly pubescent.