Family |
Liliaceae
Gagea gageoides
(Zucc.) Vved.
Gagea gageoides (Zucc.) Vved.
(First published in B.A.Fedtschenko & al., Fl. Turkmen. 1: 261 (1932); basionym Bulbillaria gageoides Zucc., first published in Abh. Math.-Phys. Cl. Königl. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. 3: 229 (1843); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, Pl. LXIX nº 5; 1966, syn. Gagea persica Boiss.) (Plants of the World Online)
• Life-form & habit : Small perennial bulbous geophyte; bulb small, ovoid-conical, with short tunics; stem slender, flexuous, leafless at the base, then dichotomously branched into a corymb, 6–12 cm tall.
• Leaves : Radical leaf filiform, rather short or sometimes absent; each ramule subtended by a leaf or bract, the lowest one lanceolate-amplexicaul, the others progressively smaller.
• Inflorescence & flowers : Corymbose, dichotomously branched inflorescence; ramules very slender, often spreading-diffracted, the lower ones sterile and bearing very short leaflets, each with a small axillary bulbil; terminal ramules 1–3-flowered. Perianth glabrous, yellow, concolorous outside; tepals short, oblong-lanceolate, 3–5 mm; stamens slightly shorter than the perianth.
• Fruit : Not described separately by Mouterde.
• Phenology : Flowers from April to June.
• Habitat & elevation : Mountain habitats, mainly in the middle and high mountain belts of Lebanon, on the eastern slope of Lebanon and on Hermon.
• Lebanese distribution : Recorded by Mouterde from Khan Sannine, Jabal Kneissé, ‘Aïn Saoua‘ir, Sannine, Hasroun, between Ehden and Sir, Zahlé to Sannine, above Sir, the Cedars, Laqlouq, Neba‘a-l-‘Assal above Faraya, Neba‘a-l-Laban, Neba‘a-l-‘Assal toward Bouarej, Makmel and Hermon. The plate was drawn from material from Khan Sannine.
• Native range : Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Lebanon-Syria, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Turkmenistan, Türkiye, Uzbekistan, West Himalaya.
• Diagnostic remarks : Recognizable among Lebanese and Syrian Gagea by its very slender flexuous stem, dichotomously branched corymb, lower sterile ramules bearing small axillary bulbils, short filiform or absent radical leaf, very small yellow tepals 3–5 mm long, and stamens slightly shorter than the perianth. Mouterde treated Gagea persica Boiss. as a synonym, while POWO currently accepts Gagea gageoides (Zucc.) Vved. and gives its broad native range as “S. Transcaucasus to Central Asia and W. Himalaya.” (Plants of the World Online)