Family |
Liliaceae
Gagea bohemica
(Zauschn.) Schult. & Schult.f.
Gagea bohemica (Zauschn.) Schult. & Schult.f.
(First published in J.J.Roemer & J.A.Schultes, Syst. Veg., ed. 15[bis] 7: 549 (1829); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, Pl. LXVIII nº 8; 1966, as Gagea bohemica (Zauschn.) Asch. & Graebn. subsp. aleppoana Pascher) (Plants of the World Online)
• Life-form & habit : Very small perennial bulbous geophyte; bulbs very small, smooth, enclosed in a common tunic shortly prolonged onto the stem and splitting into fibres at the summit; stem dwarf or at least short.
• Leaves : Radical leaves 2, linear-setaceous to filiform, exceeding the stem; cauline leaves alternate, lanceolate or linear, more or less ciliate.
• Inflorescence & flowers : Flowers 1–3; perianth with tepals 7–11 mm long, bright yellow inside, yellowish or greenish outside, very obtuse; stamens 2/3 to 3/4 as long as the perianth; anthers oval.
• Fruit : Fruit not described separately by Mouterde.
• Phenology : Flowers from March to April.
• Habitat & elevation : Localized and not very social; recorded from coastal, lower mountain, ‘Akkar and Hermon localities, as well as Damascus, middle mountain and Syrian localities.
• Lebanese distribution : Recorded by Mouterde from Ras Beyrouth, formerly; Nahr Safa; above ‘Akkar-el-‘Atiq and Qoubbayat; and Hermon. The plate was drawn from material from the woods of ‘Akkar.
• Native range : Albania, Algeria, Austria, Bulgaria, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, East Aegean Is., France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kriti, Krym, Lebanon-Syria, Morocco, North Caucasus, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine.
• Diagnostic remarks : Mouterde treated the Lebanese and Syrian material as subsp. aleppoana Pascher, noting that it appears to differ mainly by its less ample perianths, whereas the European typical form has flowers notably large in relation to its small vegetative apparatus. POWO currently treats Gagea aleppoana Pascher as a synonym of Gagea bohemica and accepts Gagea bohemica (Zauschn.) Schult. & Schult.f. (Plants of the World Online)