Family |
Rubiaceae
Galium canum
Req. ex DC.
Galium canum Req. ex DC.
(First published in Prodr. 4: 602; 1830. Treated in Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, p. 307; Pl. CLVI nº 3; 1983)
• Life-form & habit: Suffrutescent at the base, 10–30 cm, with stems and branches densely tomentose.
• Leaves: Usually also canescent-tomentose, greyish, sometimes simply hispid and remaining green; margins strongly revolute, giving leaves a linear outline (var. musciforme Boiss. with ovate, non-revolute leaves). Leaves in whorls of 6–8 or more, often fasciculate.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Cymes in a more or less narrow panicle; peduncles and pedicels spreading, filiform, much longer than the leaves, hispid. Pedicels usually longer than the flowers. Flowers very small, c. 1 mm, brownish-red.
• Fruit: Very shortly puberulent.
• Phenology: Flowers May–July.
• Habitat & elevation: Rocky sites and old walls, coastal to montane zones.
• Lebanese distribution (Mouterde): Saïda, Beirut, Nahr el-Kelb, Nahr Ibrahim, Ras Chekka, Tripoli, Mar Yaqoub, Bzoummar, Ghazir, Rayfoun, Douma, Karm Saddé, Tannourine, Ehden, Hasroun, Bân.
• Syrian distribution (Mouterde): Zebdani, Anti-Lebanon high plateaus, Ma‘loula, Yabroud, Raboué, ‘Aïn Khadra, Doummar, Damascus region, Jabal Qasyoun, Hama, Sarmada, Jabal Serna‘an, Karadourane, Ras Bassit.
• Native range: Cyprus, East Aegean Islands, Egypt, Crete (Kriti), Lebanon–Syria, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Turkey (POWO).
⚠️ Taxonomic note: Mouterde distinguished a var. musciforme (Boiss.) with ovate leaves and non-revolute margins, occurring around Hasroun, Bân, and Smar Jebail. Levantine populations are variable in indumentum and leaf form, but consistently characterized by tomentose stems and brownish-red, minute flowers.