Flora-Fauna

Gagea micrantha (Boiss.) Pascher

(First published in Sitzungsber. Deutsch. Naturwiss.-Med. Vereins Böhmen “Lotos” Prag 24(52): 124 (1904); basionym Gagea foliosa var. micrantha Boiss., first published in Fl. Orient. 5: 205 (1882); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, Pl. LXVIII nº 7; 1966) (europlusmed.org)

• Life-form & habit : Small perennial bulbous geophyte; bulbs enclosed in a common tunic more or less laciniate at the summit, the larger bulb smooth and orange-coloured, the smaller one very small, violet, striate and somewhat verrucose.

• Leaves : Radical leaves 2, linear, exceeding the flowers; cauline leaves more or less ciliate, usually alternate and spaced, the lower cauline leaf separated from the upper one by a branch of the inflorescence.

• Inflorescence & flowers : Inflorescence an almost racemiform anthela, with erect, spaced peduncles bearing shortly pedicellate, more or less villous flowers; perianth campanulate; tepals oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, strongly ciliate and greenish outside; stamens with short yellow anthers, slightly exceeded by the style.

• Fruit : Capsule obovate, shorter than the perianth.

• Phenology : Flowers from April to May.

• Habitat & elevation : Slightly humid places in mountain habitats, mainly in the middle and high mountain belts, also on Hermon and the Anti-Lebanon.

• Lebanese distribution : Recorded by Mouterde from Jabal Kneissé, the Col de Zahlé, Jabal Sannine, Khan Sannine, the Cedars of Ma‘asser, the Cedars, Jisr-el-Hajar, the Col des Cèdres toward Foum-el-Mizhab, Hermon, and above Baalbeck in the Anti-Lebanon.

• Native range : Lebanon-Syria.

• Diagnostic remarks : Distinguished in Mouterde’s key by the two cauline leaves being separated, the lower one placed below the lowest branch of the inflorescence and the upper one subtending the rest, together with small, very villous flowers. It differs from Gagea peduncularis and G. arvensis, where the two involucral cauline leaves are close together, and from G. dubia, where at least one cauline leaf is placed lower on the stem away from the inflorescence and the small bulb is distinctly areolate. POWO accepts Gagea micrantha (Boiss.) Pascher and treats Gagea foliosa var. micrantha Boiss. as its basionymic synonym. (Plants of the World Online)