Family |
Onagraceae
Epilobium montanum
L.
Epilobium montanum L.
(First published in Sp. Pl.: 348 (1753); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. CCXLVI nº 3; 1970)
• Life-form & habit : Perennial herb with a rhizome producing subterranean shoots; stems 10–80 cm tall, rough to the touch or at least puberulent, more or less clearly marked by raised longitudinal lines.
• Leaves : Leaves opposite below, ovate to narrowly ovate-lanceolate, 3.5–8 × 1–4 cm, very shortly petiolate, rounded at the base, with a distinctly serrate margin.
• Inflorescence & flowers : Inflorescence pubescent, sometimes slightly glandular; flowers 7–12 mm long; petals rose-purple; stigma deeply four-lobed, usually exceeding the anthers at anthesis.
• Fruit : Capsule 5–9 cm long; seeds obovate, papillose, about 1 mm long.
• Phenology : Flowers from June to August.
• Habitat & elevation : Wet ground, especially sandy or arenaceous substrates, above 1,200 m.
• Lebanese distribution : Recorded by Mouterde from Faraya, Tannourine, Khan Sannine, Hasroun, ‘Aïn Dahab, Dimane to the Cedars of Hadeth, ‘Aïn-el-Qarn above Ehden, and near the Col de Zahlé.
• Native range : Albania, Altay, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Buryatiya, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Føroyar, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Irkutsk, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Krasnoyarsk, Lebanon-Syria, Netherlands, North Caucasus, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sakhalin, Sardegna, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Transcaucasus, Tuva, Türkiye, Ukraine, West Siberia.
• Diagnostic remarks : Distinguished from Epilobium lanceolatum by its ovate to ovate-lanceolate leaves, very shortly petiolate and rounded at the base, rather than distinctly petiolate and cuneate. It differs from E. tetragonum by its deeply four-lobed stigma and non-decurrent leaves, and from E. parviflorum by its less velvety indumentum, broader leaves rounded at the base, usually larger flowers, and stigma usually exceeding the anthers. Mouterde notes that the Lebanese material had previously been variously misidentified as E. smyrnaeum, E. roseum, E. alsinifolium var. major, or E. gemmascens, but that P. H. Raven confirmed it as typical E. montanum.