Flora-Fauna

Galium samuelssonii Ehrend.

(First published in Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 22: 387 (1958); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 3, Pl. CLVIII nº 2 a–c; 1983) (powo.science.kew.org)

• Life-form & habit : Annual herb, 30–80 cm tall; stems long, soft, ascending or prostrate, armed with prickles and fine papillose hairs, slightly dilated at the nodes, branched only in the lower half.

• Leaves : Leaves in whorls of 8–10, very scabrous; the lowest leaves oblong-spatulate, the upper leaves linear-lanceolate and long-mucronate.

• Inflorescence & flowers : Flowering cymes borne in the upper leaf axils, long-pedunculate, 5 cm or more, erect or spreading, two or three times trichotomous; flowers very small, about 1.5 mm, grouped in dense glomerules; pedicels incurved.

• Fruit : Fruit not described separately by Mouterde for the species.

• Phenology : Flowers from March to April.

• Habitat & elevation : More or less shrubby places.

• Lebanese distribution : Recorded by Mouterde only as var. pseudadhaerens from ‘Ammiq and Zellaya–Yohmor, the latter transitional toward var. samuelssonii.

• Native range : Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Türkiye.

• Diagnostic remarks : Mouterde recognized two varieties: var. samuelssonii, recorded from Syria and Palestine, and var. pseudadhaerens Ehrend., recorded from Lebanon and Syria. Var. pseudadhaerens differs by stems branched from the base, prostrate or ascending, flexuous, not swollen, 20–40 cm tall, with slightly shorter peduncles and fewer, larger flowers 2–3 mm wide. POWO accepts Galium samuelssonii Ehrend. and gives its broader native range as “S. Türkiye to NW. Jordan.” (powo.science.kew.org)