Family |
Papaveraceae
Fumaria judaica
L.
Fumaria judaica Boiss.
(First published in Diagn. Pl. Orient., ser. 1, 8: 15 (1849); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. XXX nº 2; 1970) (ipni.org)
• Life-form & habit : Annual herb, rather robust, slightly glaucous; stems erect, diffuse or climbing, 20–60 cm tall.
• Leaves : Leaves irregularly 2–3-pinnatisect, with oblong to lanceolate segments.
• Inflorescence & flowers : Racemes 10–20-flowered, more or less lax, about equalling their peduncle; flowers 9–11 mm long, white or more often pinkish-white to pale pink; sepals small, about 2 mm, whitish; spur short, not or only weakly curved, narrowed at the base.
• Fruit : Fruit 2–3 mm, very obtuse, not mucronate, densely tuberculate-rugose.
• Phenology : Flowers from January to May.
• Habitat & elevation : Roadsides, hedges and waste ground.
• Lebanese distribution : Recorded by Mouterde from Saïda, Beyrouth and surroundings, Nahr-el-Kelb, Ma‘meltein, Nahr Ibrahim, Jounié, Bsouss and ‘Abey.
• Native range : Albania, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Egypt, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, NW. Balkan Pen., Palestine.
• Diagnostic remarks : Distinguished in Mouterde’s key by its flowers more than 9 mm long, fruit 3 mm or less, non-carinate, very obtuse, non-mucronate and densely tuberculate-rugose, and by its pale flowers, usually white to pinkish-white rather than strongly contrasted. It differs from Fumaria macrocarpa by its smaller fruit, 2–3 mm rather than 3–4 mm, and from F. gaillardotii by the lack of a sharply contrasting purple-black petal apex and by fruit that is not distinctly carinate.