Flora-Fauna

Filago anatolica (Boiss. & Heldr.) Chrtek & Holub

(Preslia 35: 3; 1963 – basionym: Filago lutescens var. anatolica Boiss. & Heldr., Diagn. Pl. Orient. ser. 2, 2: 98; 1856 – Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. CCVII nº 1; 1969)

• Life-form & habit: Annual herb, 5–20 cm tall, woolly-grey throughout, forming small, compact tufts or mats. Stems erect to ascending, simple or sparingly branched from the base, densely lanate with interwoven, cottony hairs.

• Leaves: Alternate, sessile, linear-lanceolate, 5–15 × 1–2 mm, entire, acute, densely white-woolly on both surfaces, giving the plant a silvery aspect.

• Inflorescence & flowers: Capitula numerous, small (3–5 mm), clustered into dense terminal glomerules or short spikes. Involucral bracts ovate, tomentose, with scarious, yellowish or brownish tips. Florets all tubular, yellowish; marginal florets female, central ones bisexual.

• Fruit: Achenes minute, cylindrical, glabrous or faintly puberulent; pappus reduced to a short crown of fine bristles.

• Phenology: Flowers and fruits from April to June.

• Habitat & elevation: Dry open slopes, steppe vegetation, and rocky or sandy soils, often in degraded or grazed habitats, between 500 and 1 800 m.

• Lebanese distribution: Reported by Mouterde (as Filago lutescens var. anatolica) from the Beqaa Valley and Anti-Lebanon — particularly around Dahr el-Baïdar, Zahlé, and Ras Baalbeck; locally common in arid, montane steppe zones.

• Native range: Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Transcaucasus, Türkiye (POWO).

• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: Formerly treated as a variety of Filago lutescens but raised to species rank by Chrtek & Holub (1963) based on capitulum and achene morphology. Distinguished from F. lutescens by its more compact habit, smaller capitula, and shorter, denser indumentum. A characteristic Irano-Anatolian steppe species extending into the Levant.