Flora-Fauna

Delphinium sclerocladum Boiss.

(Diagn. Pl. Orient. 8: 8, 1849; = Consolida scleroclada (Boiss.) Schröd.; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, pp. 26–27; Pl. VIII nº 3; 1966)

• Life-form & habit: Annual to biennial, 20–60 cm, pubescent or glabrescent, stems branched from the base into bifurcating branchlets, sometimes erect with rigid lateral shoots.
• Leaves: Basal leaves few, trifid with acute narrow lobes, glabrous or slightly puberulent. Upper cauline leaves reduced.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Racemes lax, flowers strongly zygomorphic due to the spur. Spur of calyx and corolla inflated into a pouch-like extension, c. 2 cm, ending in a membranous, ovate, hyaline apex enveloping the circinate spur of the petal. Sepals pale pink, glabrous or slightly pubescent, spur more velvety. Petals whitish-yellow; upper lobe longer or equal to intermediates, the lateral lobes ovate, obtuse, separated by a narrow sinus. Petal spur circinate.
• Fruit: Follicle semi-obovoid, 6–9 × 2–3 mm, rounded or slightly gibbous at apex, abruptly rostrate.
• Phenology: Flowers May–July and later.
• Habitat & elevation: Pastures, degraded woodlands, rocky places.
• Lebanese distribution: Bikfaya–Baskinta, Sofar, Dahr-el-Baidar, the Cedars, Khan Mourad, Beqaa (Hammana, Qamed-el-Loz, Rayak), Baalbeck, Hermon (Rachaya).
• Syrian distribution: Latakia–Aleppo, Baalbeck, sources of the Orontes, Hermel, Bloudane, Souq Ouadi Barada, Mnine–Saïdnaya, Yabroud, Nebk, Madaya, Damascus (Jabal Qasyoun, Dimas, Raboué, Sahl-es-Sahra, Hijjané), Chinchar–Qpseir, Antioch–Aleppo, Mourdouk, ‘Adra.
• Native range: Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Turkey (POWO).