Flora-Fauna

Lophosciadium syriacum (Boiss.) Lyskov & Akalın

(First published in Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 210(4): 352 (2025); basionym Ferulago syriaca Boiss., first published in Diagn. Pl. Orient. 10: 38 (1849); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. CCCVII; 1970, as Ferulago syriaca Boiss.) (OUP Academic)

• Life-form & habit : Tall perennial herb, glabrous, slightly glaucescent, 1–2 m tall; stem slender.

• Leaves : Leaves almost all basal, ovate-oblong in outline, pinnate; primary and secondary divisions long-petiolulate, ultimately divided into linear or oblong-linear acute lobules, with revolute margins and scabrous surface.

• Inflorescence & flowers : Umbels with 7–12 elongated rays; involucre and involucel with very short ovate-triangular bracts; pedicels almost equalling the fruit. Flowers yellow, as in Ferulago sensu Mouterde.

• Fruit : Mericarps ovate-oblong, 7–8 × 5–6 mm, with corky ribs and a margin equalling about half the width of the seed; styles long.

• Phenology : Flowers from May to July.

• Habitat & elevation : Rocky ground, from the coastal belt to the middle mountain belt.

• Lebanese distribution : Recorded by Mouterde from Beyrouth, Nahr Beyrouth, Nahr-el-Mott, Khirbet Besri, Broummana, Bchellé, above Tripoli, Bikfaya and Khan Sannine.

• Native range : Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Türkiye.

• Diagnostic remarks : Treated by Mouterde under Ferulago syriaca Boiss.; the combination Lophosciadium syriacum (Boiss.) Lyskov & Akalın was published in 2025. It is distinguished from related Ferulago species in Mouterde’s key by its mostly basal leaves divided into flat oblong lobules, umbels with rather numerous elongated rays, ovate mericarps about 8 mm long, a white non-undulate fruit margin, corky ribs, and long styles. It differs from F. amani by its broader flat oblong leaf-lobules and wider fruit margin, while F. amani has nearly capillary leaf-lobes and fruit strongly attenuate at both ends with almost no margin.