Family |
Liliaceae
Gagea fragifera
(Vill.) E.Bayer & G.López
Gagea fragifera (Vill.) E.Bayer & G.López
(First published in Taxon 38: 643 (1989); basionym Ornithogalum fragiferum Vill.; Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, Pl. LXVIII nº 2; 1966, as Gagea anisanthos C.Koch; syn. Gagea liotardii Schult. & Schult.f., nom. illeg. superfl.) (Plants of the World Online)
• Life-form & habit : Small perennial bulbous geophyte, developing near melting snow patches on waterlogged ground; plant with two smooth bulbs surrounded by dense tunics and ascending fibrous roots.
• Leaves : Radical leaves 2, often only one visible, fistulose, linear and narrower than those of Gagea fistulosa sensu Mouterde; cauline leaves subopposite, lanceolate and unequal.
• Inflorescence & flowers : Scape short; inflorescence a simple or branched umbel, bracteolate at the forks; bracteoles acute; peduncles glabrous; tepals lanceolate-linear to narrowly elliptic, attenuate at the apex, yellow inside and usually greenish outside; stamens slightly exceeding the middle of the perianth; style slender, equalling the anthers.
• Fruit : Not described separately by Mouterde.
• Phenology : Flowers from April to June, depending on the melting of snow patches.
• Habitat & elevation : Wet ground around melting snow patches, in middle to high mountain habitats.
• Lebanese distribution : Recorded by Mouterde from Jabal Barouk, Jabal Kneissé, near ‘Aïn Saoua‘ir, Laqlouq, Jabal Sannine, Jourd Tannourine, Hasroun, Col des Cèdres, between the Cedars and Foum-el-Mizhab, and the summit of Hermon.
• Native range : Afghanistan, Altay, Austria, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, East European Russia, France, Germany, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Krym, Lebanon-Syria, Mongolia, Morocco, North Caucasus, North European Russia, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Turkmenistan, Türkiye, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, West Himalaya, West Siberia, Xinjiang.
• Introduced range : Vermont.
• Diagnostic remarks : Mouterde treated the Lebanese-Syrian plant as Gagea anisanthos C.Koch and explicitly separated it from G. fistulosa/G. liotardii by the presence of ascending fibrous roots and by its narrow, attenuate, subacute tepals. POWO now treats Gagea anisanthos K.Koch and Gagea liotardii Schult. & Schult.f. as synonyms of the accepted Gagea fragifera (Vill.) E.Bayer & G.López.