Family |
Papaveraceae
Fumaria densiflora
DC.
Fumaria densiflora DC.
(First published in Cat. Pl. Horti Monsp.: 113 (1813); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. XXIX nº 6; 1970, syn. Fumaria micrantha Lag.)
• Life-form & habit : Annual herb, more or less robust, erect or ascending, green to slightly glaucous, 10–50 cm tall; plant glabrous, as in the genus.
• Leaves : Leaves 2–4-pinnatisect, with dense, narrowly linear to almost setaceous segments.
• Inflorescence & flowers : Racemes subsessile or very shortly pedunculate, very dense and many-flowered; bracts white, with green or purplish nerves toward the apex, exceeding the fruiting pedicels; sepals 1.5–3 mm long, ovate-rounded to ovate-lanceolate, denticulate, much broader than the corolla tube; corolla 3.5–6.5 mm long, vivid rose-purple; upper petal purple-black at the apex; spur only weakly narrowed at the base; inner petals purple-black at the apex; lower petal obtuse.
• Fruit : Fruit 2–2.5 mm, subglobose, slightly compressed, more or less keeled, very obtuse, non-mucronate, tuberculate-rugose.
• Phenology : Flowers from January to June.
• Habitat & elevation : Fields, gardens and disturbed ground; common according to Mouterde.
• Lebanese distribution : Recorded by Mouterde from Zahrani, Saïda, Beyrouth, Tripoli, ‘Asfouriyé, Joun, near Chartoun, ‘Abey, Chemlan, Mosbeh, Afqa, Mchaitiyé-‘Aïnata, Ksara, Baalbeck, Qa‘a and Şarada.
• Native range : Albania, Algeria, Baleares, Belgium, Bulgaria, Corse, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Egypt, France, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, Morocco, North Caucasus, NW. Balkan Pen., Palestine, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, Sinai, Spain, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe.
• Introduced range : Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, New South Wales, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Peru, Tasmania, Texas.
• Diagnostic remarks : Distinguished in Mouterde’s key by its flowers under 9 mm long, very broad sepals exceeding the width of the corolla tube, vivid rose-purple corolla, dense racemes, and non-mucronate, tuberculate-rugose, subglobose fruit. It differs from Fumaria officinalis and F. cilicica by its much broader sepals and denser racemes, and from F. parviflora, F. vaillantii and F. asepala by its larger, vivid rose-purple flowers and conspicuous broad sepals.