Flora-Fauna

Erigeron libanoticus Vierh.

(First published in Beih. Bot. Centralbl. 19(2): 514; 1906. Treated in Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 368, Pl. CCI nº 1; 1984)

• Life-form & habit: Small perennial herb, 5 – 15 cm tall, arising from a taproot. Stems single or multiple, covered with spreading pubescence.

• Leaves: Basal leaves oblong-spatulate, slightly acute at the apex, narrowing into a short petiole. Cauline leaves sessile, 1–3, very reduced on weak stems.

• Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula solitary, up to 2 cm in diameter. Involucral bracts green, pubescent, without membranous margins. Ligules violet, about twice as long as the involucre.

• Fruit: Achenes light brown, linear, surmounted by a pappus of scabrid hairs equaling the fruit’s length.

• Phenology: Flowers June to August.

• Habitat & elevation: High-mountain habitats, rocky slopes and alpine pastures, 1 800 – 3 000 m.

• Lebanese distribution: Above the Cedars, Ehden, Dimane, Tannourine, Col des Cèdres, Mizhab depression, and Qornet es-Saouda.

• Native range: Endemic to Lebanon.

• Conservation notes: Restricted to a few alpine sites on the highest summits of Mount Lebanon; threatened by overgrazing, trampling, and ongoing pine afforestation projects within the subalpine belt. Climate warming is expected to further contract its already limited range.

• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: Previously misidentified as E. alpinum Boiss. & Auch. (non L.); described as a distinct Lebanese endemic by Vierhapper in 1906.